34!8 ANIMAL FOOD RESOURCES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS. 



pleasant taste, the cheapness of such provisions. But 

 what shall we say to the gourmet who praises the lus- 

 cious wood snipe, and still more the black mass from 

 the inside that he carefully places on his toast and eats 

 with a feeling akin to veneration? He is eating the 

 worms that live in the snipe's intestines. How many, 

 too, eat ripe or decayed cheese with the cheese mites 

 and maggots crawling over it. 



A few years ago at the Caf ^ Custoza, in Paris, a grand 

 banquet was given for the special purpose of testing the 

 vers blanc, or cockchafer worm. This insect, it appears, 

 was first steeped in vinegar, which had the effect of 

 making it disgorge the earth, etc., it had swallowed 

 while yet free ; then it was carefully rolled up in a 

 paste composed of flour, milk, and eggs, placed in a 

 pan, and fried to a bright golden colour. The guests 

 were able to take this crisp and dry worm in their 

 fingers. It cracked between their teeth. There were 

 some fifty persons present, and the majority had a 

 second helping. The larvae, or grubs, generally, not 

 only of the cockchafer, but those of the ordinary 

 beetles, may, according to some naturalists, be eaten 

 safely. Cats, turkeys, and different birds devour them 

 eagerly. 



We find in a Continental journal, the Gazette des Cam- 

 pagnes, the following receipt for cooking these insects, 

 which is adopted in certain parts of France : — 



" Roll the vers blcmcs, which are short and fat, in flour 

 and bread crumbs, with a little salt and pepper, and 

 wrap them in a stout piece of paper, well buttered in- 

 side. Place it in the hot embers and leave it to cook 

 for twenty minutes, more or less, according to the degree 

 of heat. On opening the envelope a very appetising 

 odour exhales, which disposes one favourably to taste 

 the delicacy, which will be more appreciated than 

 snails, and will be declared one of the finest deli- 

 cacies ever tasted." * 



* " Les Insectes Utiles," par Henri Miot, p. 89. Paris, 1870. 



