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

<hw>Snook</hw>, n. The name is applied in the Old World to various fishes, including the Garfish (q.v.). At the Cape of Good Hope, it is applied to Thyrsites atun, Cuv. and Val., and this name for the same fish has extended to New Zealand, where (as in all the other colonies) it is more generally called the Barracouta (q.v.). Under the word Cavally, `O.E.D.' quotes—

1697. Dampier, `Voyage,' vol. i:

"The chiefest fish are bonetas, snooks, cavallys."

Snook is an old name, but it is doubtful whether it is used in the Old World for the same fish. Castelnau says it is the snook of the Cape of Good Hope.

1872. Hutton and Hector, `Fishes of New Zealand,' p. 14, under `Thyrsites Atun, Barracoota':

"This is, I believe, the fish called snoek in Cape Colony."

1880. Guenther, `Study of Fishes,' p. 436:

"Th. atun from the Cape of Good Hope, South Australia, New Zealand, and Chili, is preserved, pickled or smoked. In New Zealand it is called `barracuda' or `snoek,' and exported from the colony into Mauritius and Batavia as a regular article of commerce."

<hw>Snowberry</hw>, n. a Tasmanian name for the Wax-cluster (q.v.).

<hw>Snow-Grass</hw>, n. Poa caespitosa, G. Forst., another name for Wiry grass (q.v.). See also Grass.