Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/251

 seems to us, it is from a real liking for their flesh that the Australian savages eat them, and not from the great scarcity of better food; for I have, on two or three occasions, known them when employed by me in assisting at the cattle musters, pulling maize, &c. and well fed on bread and beef, carefully preserve any snake they chanced to kill, and cook and eat it at the next fire. Induced by curiosity, I have on several occasions tasted the flesh of every one of the reptiles just mentioned, and although nothing but the most extreme hunger could make me conquer my aversion, so as to dine on them, I must nevertheless own, that not one of them possessed any disagreeable taste. The flesh of the black snake in particular was rich and juicy, somewhat resembling in flavour the flesh of a sucking pig, whilst that of the guana was whiter and drier, and more approximated to fowl. Besides, these savages are not the only race of men who eat reptiles, for the common water-snake of England, (Natrix torquata,) is eaten in several parts of the continent of Europe, and every one knows that the guana of the West Indies, (a much more hideous animal, by-the-bye, than the guana of Australia,) is considered very good eating by the planters in some of the islands.

The tree grub, which is very similar to the common nut maggot, on a larger scale, is also swallowed raw not only by the blacks, but by many of the whites, as it is very much like sweetened