Austral English / A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia - Edward Ellis Morris

"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 grass, 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 destitute 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."

<hw>Pig-faced Lady</hw>, n. an old name in Tasmania for the Boar-fish (q.v.).

<hw>Pig-fish</hw>, 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 Wrasse, closely related to the Blue-groper. In Victoria, Heterodontus phillipi, Lacep., the Port Jackson Shark. See Shark.

<hw>Pig-footed Bandicoot</hw>, n. name given to Choeropus 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 grass 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.