SNAPPER.
An Australian species of Sea-bream.
Several species of sea-bream occur in Australia, where they are known as Snappers. One of the largest of these, which attains a length of more than 3 feet and a weight of over 40 lbs., is not only considered excellent eating, but is also the most popular sport-yielding fish of that colony.
The ancient Romans kept a species of sea-bream, the Gilt-head, in their vivariums, where it grew extremely fat. This species is said to stir up the sand with its tail, to discover buried shell-fish. It is particularly fond of mussels, and the noise it makes in crunching them between its jaws is loud enough to be heard by the fishermen.
Nearly allied to the Sea-breams are a group known, for want of a better name, as the Thick-rayed Fishes, some of which rank as of prime importance among the food-fishes of the British Colonies. A general idea of the shape of the members of this family may be gathered from the photograph of an Australian Groper. The name of Long-fin, given to one species, is bestowed on account of the fact that one or more of the rays of the breast-fin on each side is drawn out into a filament, often of very considerable length, which is used as an organ of touch. In other species, where the elongation is less, and more rays have undergone modification, an auxiliary organ of locomotion is the result. At the Cape of Good Hope species of long-fin are very abundant, and preserved in large quantities for export.
Other members of this family lack the elongated fin-rays altogether. The fishes known as the Tumpeters of New Zealand and Tasmania belong to this section. They are considered by the colonists the best flavoured of any native fishes, and are eaten smoked as well as fresh. But two species are known, one ranging from 30 to 60 lbs. in weight, and the other, a much smaller form, scarcely attaining a weight of 20 lbs.; the latter is the more abundant of the two, though confined to the coast of New Zealand.
Photo by W. Saville Kent, F.Z.S.] [Milford-on-Sea.
KING-SNAPPER.
A member of the group of Slime-heads.