diff --git a/pymongo/bson.py b/pymongo/bson.py
index f77efe9a1..a5b3fb8ce 100644
--- a/pymongo/bson.py
+++ b/pymongo/bson.py
@@ -382,7 +382,7 @@ def is_valid(bson):
     except (AssertionError, InvalidBSON):
         return False
 
-def to_dicts(data):
+def _to_dicts(data):
     """Convert binary data to sequence of SON objects.
 
     Data must be concatenated strings of valid BSON data.
diff --git a/pymongo/cursor.py b/pymongo/cursor.py
index 494f8c76d..11281ed4e 100644
--- a/pymongo/cursor.py
+++ b/pymongo/cursor.py
@@ -270,7 +270,7 @@ class Cursor(object):
 
             number_returned = struct.unpack("<i", response[16:20])[0]
             self.__retrieved += number_returned
-            self.__data = bson.to_dicts(response[20:])
+            self.__data = bson._to_dicts(response[20:])
             assert len(self.__data) == number_returned
 
         if self.__id is None:
diff --git a/test/test_bson.py b/test/test_bson.py
index 05ce654a2..17728a2a2 100644
--- a/test/test_bson.py
+++ b/test/test_bson.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ from pymongo.code import Code
 from pymongo.objectid import ObjectId
 from pymongo.dbref import DBRef
 from pymongo.son import SON
-from pymongo.bson import BSON, is_valid, to_dicts
+from pymongo.bson import BSON, is_valid, _to_dicts
 from pymongo.errors import UnsupportedTag
 
 class TestBSON(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ class TestBSON(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual({"test": u"hello world"},
                          BSON("\x1B\x00\x00\x00\x0E\x74\x65\x73\x74\x00\x0C\x00\x00\x00\x68\x65\x6C\x6C\x6F\x20\x77\x6F\x72\x6C\x64\x00\x00").to_dict())
         self.assertEqual([{"test": u"hello world"}, {}],
-                         to_dicts("\x1B\x00\x00\x00\x0E\x74\x65\x73\x74\x00\x0C\x00\x00\x00\x68\x65\x6C\x6C\x6F\x20\x77\x6F\x72\x6C\x64\x00\x00\x05\x00\x00\x00\x00"))
+                         _to_dicts("\x1B\x00\x00\x00\x0E\x74\x65\x73\x74\x00\x0C\x00\x00\x00\x68\x65\x6C\x6C\x6F\x20\x77\x6F\x72\x6C\x64\x00\x00\x05\x00\x00\x00\x00"))
 
     def test_basic_from_dict(self):
         self.assertRaises(TypeError, BSON.from_dict, 100)
diff --git a/tools/bson_benchmark.py b/tools/bson_benchmark.py
index 24e7157d8..a46c5c2d4 100644
--- a/tools/bson_benchmark.py
+++ b/tools/bson_benchmark.py
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ def main():
         print "enc json",
         enc_json = run(case, json.dumps)
         print "dec bson",
-        assert case == run(enc_bson, bson.to_dicts)[0]
+        assert case == run(enc_bson, bson._to_dicts)[0]
         print "dec json",
         assert case == run(enc_json, json.loads)