Pig"s-face, or Pig"s-faces. Names given to an indigenous "iceplant," Mesembryanthemum aequilaterale, Haw., N.O. Ficoideae, deriving its generic name from the habit of expanding its flower about noon.1834. Ross, `Van Diemen"s Land Annual," p. 133:
"Mesembryanthemum aequilaterale, pig faces; called by the aborigines by the more elegant name of canagong. The pulp of the almost shapeless, but somewhat ob-conical, fleshy seed vessel of this plant, is sweetish and saline; it is about an inch and a half long, of a yellowish, reddish, or green colour."
1844. Mrs. Meredith, `Notes and Sketches of New South Wales,"
p. 45:
"Great green mat-like plants of the pretty Mesembryanthemum aequilaterale, or fig-marigold, adorned the hot sandy banks by the road-side. It bears a bright purple flower, and a five-sided fruit, called by the children `pig-faces.""
1848. W. Westgarth, `Australia Felix," p. 132:
"The pig"s face is an extremely common production of the Australian soil, growing like a thick and fleshy gra.s.s, with its three-sided leaf and star-shaped pink or purple flower, occupying usually a rocky or dry light soil."
1879. C. W. Schuermann, in `The Native Tribes of South Australia," p. 217:
"Though this country is almost entirely dest.i.tute of indigenous fruits of any value to an European, yet there are various kinds which form very valuable and extensive articles of food for the aborigines; the most abundant and important of these is the fruit of a species of cactus, very elegantly styled pig"s-faces by the white people, but by the natives called karkalla. The size of the fruit is rather less than that of a walnut, and it has a thick skin of a pale reddish colour, by compressing which, the glutinous sweet substance inside slips into the mouth."
1889. J. H. Maiden, `Useful Native Plants," p. 44:
"Pig-faces. It was the canajong of the Tasmanian aboriginal. The fleshy fruit is eaten raw by the aborigines: the leaves are eaten baked."
Pig-faced Lady, n. an old name in Tasmania for the Boar-fish (q.v.).
Pig-fish, n. name given to the fish Agriopus leucopaecilus, Richards., in Dunedin; called also the Leather-jacket (q.v.). In Sydney it is Cossyphus unimaculatus, Gunth., a Wra.s.se, closely related to the Blue-groper. In Victoria, Heterodontus phillipi, Lacep., the Port Jackson Shark. See Shark.
Pig-footed Bandicoot, n. name given to Ch.o.e.ropus castanotis, Gray, an animal about the size of a rabbit, belonging to the family Peramelidae, which includes all the bandicoots. It lives in the sandy, dry interior of the continent, making a small nest for itself on the surface of the ground out of gra.s.s and twigs.
The popular name is derived from the fact that in the fore-feet the second and third toes are alone well developed, the first and fifth being absent, and the fourth very rudimentary, so that the foot has a striking resemblance to that of a pig.
See also Bandicoot.
1838. T. L. Mitch.e.l.l, `Expeditions into Eastern Australia,"
p. 131:
"The feet, and especially the fore feet, were singularly formed, the latter resembling those of a hog."
1893. A. R. Wallace, `Australasia," p. 68:
"Another peculiar form, the Ch.o.e.ropus, or pig-footed bandicoot."
Pigmeater, n. a beast only fit for pigs to eat: one that will not fatten.
1884. Rolf Boldrewood, `Melbourne Memories," c. xiv. p. 105:
"Among them was a large proportion of bullocks, which declined with fiendish obstinacy to fatten. They were what are known by the stock-riders as `ragers" [q.v.] or `pig-meaters.""
1890. Rolf Boldrewood, `A Colonial Reformer," p. 218:
"`Pig-meaters!" exclaimed Ernest; `what kind of cattle do you call those? Do bullocks eat pigs in this country?" `No, but pigs eat them, and horses too, and a very good way of getting rid of rubbish.""
Piharau, n. Maori name for Geotria chilensis, Gray, a New Zealand Lamprey (q.v.).
1845. E. J. Wakefield, `Adventures in New Zealand," vol.
ii. p. 15:
"We procured an abundant supply of piarau, a `lamprey," which is taken in large numbers in this river, and some others in the neighbourhood, when the waters are swollen."
Pihoihoi, n. Maori name for a New Zealand bird, the Ground-lark (q.v.). The word has five syllables.
Pike, n. name applied in Australia and Tasmania to two species of marine fish--Sphyraena obtusata, Cuv. and Val.; S. novae-hollandiae; Gunth. See also Sea-pike.
Pilchard, n. The fish which visits the Australian sh.o.r.es periodically, in shoals larger than the Cornish shoals, is Clupea sagax, Jenyns, the same as the Californian Pilchard, and closely related to the English Pilchard, which is Clupea pilchardus.
Pilgrims, Canterbury, n. The first settlers in Canterbury, New Zealand, were so called in allusion to the pilgrims to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. Chaucer"s `Canterbury Tales" were told by such pilgrims. The name was given probably by Mr. William Lyon, who in 1851 wrote the `Dream." See quotation, 1877.
1865. Lady Barker, `Station Life in New Zealand," p. 20:
"The `Pilgrims," as the first comers are always called.
I like the name; it is so pretty and suggestive."
1877. W. Pratt, `Colonial Experiences or Incidents of Thirty-four Years in New Zealand," p. 234: