The part of the kangaroo most esteemed for eating is the loins; and the tail, which abounds in gelatine, furnishes an excellent and nourishing soup; the hind legs are coarse, and usually fall to the share of the dogs. The natives (if they can be said to have a choice) give a preference to the head. The flesh of the full-grown animal may be compared to lean beef, and that of the young to veal; they are destitute of fat, if we except a little being occasionally seen between the muscles and integuments of the tail. The colonial dish called a _steamer_, consists of the flesh of this animal dressed, with slices of ham. The liver, when cooked, is crisp and dry, and is considered a substitute for bread; but I cannot coincide in this opinion. While visiting the “Blowrin Flat,” on hunting and other excursions, I frequently observed marks upon the grass where kangaroos had been herding; at one place the grass was beaten down, and a quantity of their fur strewed about the ground, an indication of their having been recently engaged in active warfare, leaving behind them, like the Kilkenny cats, only some morsels of flue. Although we had many indications of these animals having visited the flat, we rarely saw them, except upon the ranges, particularly those spots where, the grass having been recently burnt, the young herbage was springing up.[111] It is usual for kangaroos to frequent the high land during the summer, seeking the more sheltered situations during winter. The females are not permitted to eat the flesh of the kangaroo, for if they did (the selfish males observe) “our dogs would die;” nor are the women, it is said, allowed to eat the flesh of the “Bandicoot” (called Kudjun, Mandu, or Gorun, by the natives) until they have borne a child. The dying kangaroo would afford a subject worthy of the inimitable pencil of Landseer, as it lies prostrate on that ground, where, but a few minutes before, it fed and gambolled, unconscious of danger, moaning piteously under the unmerciful fangs of the hounds: its eyes, dim with tears, seeming to upbraid the hunter for his cruelty. No one can behold the tragic scene without feeling pangs of regret, as the dogs worry the animal until the hunter dismounts, and passing his knife across the creature’s throat, the crimson stream flows, and the fixed glassy eye indicates the termination of life.