milk-fish

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

n.


The name, in Australia,is given to a marine animal belonging to the class Holothurioidea. The Holothurians are called Sea-cucumbers, or Sea-slugs. The Trepang,or bêche-de-mer, eaten by the Chinese, belongs to them.Called also Tit-fish (q.v.).

1880. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Proceedings of theLinnaean Society of New South Wales,' vol. v. pt. ii.p. 128:

«Another species [of Trepang] is the `milk fish' or `cottonfish,' so called from its power of emitting a white viscidfluid from its skin, which clings to an object like shreds ofcotton.»

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