The young are called <i>Cock-schnapper</i> (q.v.); at a year old they are called <i>Red-Bream</i>; at two years old, <i>Squire</i>; at three, <i>School-Schnapper</i>; when they cease to "school" and swim solitary they are called <i>Natives</i> and <i>Rock-Natives</i>. Being the standard by which the "catch" is measured, the full-grown <i>Schnappers</i> are also called <i>Count-fish</i> (q.v.). In New Zealand, the <i>Tamure</i> (q.v.) is also called <i>Schnapper</i>, and the name <i>Red-Schnapper</i> is given to <i>Anthias richardsoni</i>, Gunth., or <i>Scorpis hectori</i>, Hutton. See quotation, 1882.
1827. P. Cunningham, `Two Years in New South Wales,' vol. i. p. 68:
"King-fish, mullet, mackarel, rockcod, whiting, snapper, bream, flatheads, and various other descriptions of fishes, are all found plentifully about."
1846. J. L. Stokes, `Discoveries in Australia,' vol. i. p. 261:
"The kangaroos are numerous and large, and the finest snappers I have ever heard of are caught off this point, weighing sometimes as much as thirty pounds."
[The point referred to is that now called Schnapper Point, at
Mornington, in Victoria.]
1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Fish of New South Wales,' p. 39:
"The genus <i>Pagrus</i>, or as we term it in the vernacular, `schnapper,' a word of Dutch origin . . . The schnapper or snapper. The schnapper (<i>Pagrus unicolor</i>, Cuv. and Val.) is the most valuable of Australian fishes, not for its superior excellence . . . but for the abundant and regular supply . . . At a still greater age the schnapper seems to cease to school and becomes what is known as the `native' and `rock-native,' a solitary and sometimes enormously large fish."
1896 `The Australasian,' Aug. 28, p. 407, col. 5:
"The fish, snapper, is so called because it snapped. The spelling with `ch' is a curious after-thought, suggestive of alcohol. The name cannot come from schnapps."