Pigs grow fat on this food, and coyotes, bears, and grey foxes also eat it.

It is considered by Professor W.G.Farlow as a variety of _Melanogaster variegatus_, which he calls _Mexicanus_.

It tastes like an over-ripe pear, with a flavour of onion when one first bites into it.

The ordinary _Melanogaster variegatus_ is eaten in Europe, and esteemed for its pleasant taste.
It was disagreeable to travel during the dry season, on account of the difficulty in getting provisions and finding pastures for the animals.

But I made up my mind to start under any circumstances on an excursion toward the north-east, knowing that the fresh grass would come up quickly after a few of the thunder-storms not infrequent at that season.