frost-fish

Dictionary of Australasian Words Phrases and Usages by Edward E. Morris

n.


name given in Australia and NewZealand to the European Scabbard-fish, Lepidopuscaudatus, White. The name is said to be derived from thecircumstance that the fish is found alive on New Zealandsea-beaches on frosty nights. It is called the Scabbard-fish in Europe, because it is like the shiningwhite metal sheath of a long sword. Lepidopus belongsto the family Trichiuridae, it reaches a length of fiveor six feet, but is so thin that it hardly weighs as manypounds. It is considered a delicacy in New Zealand.

1888. W. L. Buller, `Birds of New Zealand,' vol. ii. p. 51:

«The frost-fish . . . the most delicately flavoured of all NewZealand fishes, is an inhabitant of deep water, and on frostynights, owing probably to its air-bladders becoming choked, itis cast up by the surf on the ocean-beach.»

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