I must plead guilty to a special sympathy for nomias. This may just be pride in my adopted State of Washington, but certainly I love to visit their mound cities near Yakima and Prosser in July or August, when the bees are in their most active period. The name ``alkali bee'' indicates that one has to look for them in rather inhospitable places. Sometimes, although by no means always, these are indeed alkaline. The thing is that these bees love a fine-grained soil that is moist; yet the water in the ground should not be stagnant either. They dislike dense vegetation. Where does one find such conditions? The best chance, of course, is offered by gently sloping terrain where the water remains close to the surface and where the air is dry, so that a high evaporation leaves salty deposits which permit only sparse plant growth.