208 ANIMAL FOOD EESOUKCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



British Guiana, in 1884, had 50 eggs, which were eaten 

 by the negroes. 



The eggs of the common teguexin (Teius teguexin, Lin.), 

 and other large species of lizards, are eaten in South 

 America. 



Insect Eggs. — The eggs of some insects are also 

 eaten. The larvae and nymphae of ants are not only 

 good food for poultry, but they are considered a 

 choice relish by many people spread on bread and 

 butter, and are excellent curried. They are eaten 

 in Siam, forming, with edible birds' nests, an esteemed 

 article of food, but being costly they are only obtain- 

 able by the rich. Ants' brood are subject to an im- 

 port duty in some of the northern countries of Europe, 

 especially in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. In those 

 countries they are steeped in boiling water, and a kind 

 of vinegar or formic acid is obtained. 



Among the other objects of insect products useful 

 to man are the eggs obtained in Mexico from three 

 species of hemipterous insects belonging to the group 

 of aquatic beetles. These eggs are made into a sort of 

 bread or cake called " Hautle," consumed by the people, 

 and it forms an article of commerce in the markets. 

 In the fresh waters of the lagoons, bundles of reeds or 

 rushes are laid, on which the insects {Corixa femorata 

 and C. mercenaria, Geoffroy,and Notoneda Americana) de- 

 posit their eggs. The bundles of rushes are then with- 

 drawn, dried, and beaten over cloths, to detach the 

 myriads of eggs. These are cleansed and sifted, and put 

 into sacks and sold like flour, to form cakes, which are 

 excellent eating, but have a fishy and slightly acid 

 flavour. The custom seems to have been long prac- 

 tised, for it is mentioned so far back as 1625 by a mis- 

 sionary, Thomas Gage, who, travelling in Mexico, states 

 that these cakes were being sold in the markets. 



Brantz Mayer, in his " Mexico as it Was, and as it Is," 

 published in New York, in 1844, speaks of having 

 noticed on the Lake of Tescuco, men occupied in collect- 

 ing the eggs of flies on plants and sheets. "These 



