THE PLAICE: HABITS. 179 



without making any attempt to escape." Still farther south they are fouud iu the shallowest of 

 water. The fishermen of Saint John's River seine them iu the grass along the shores at a depth 

 of three or four feet. Mr. Stearns writes, speaking of the eastern pait of the Gulf of Mexico: 

 "They are found mostly in the bays and bayous where the bottom is muddy or grassy, but it is 

 not unusual to find them iu shoal water along the sand beaches of the coast and bays. Very shoal 

 water seems to be particularly attractive, and they are ofteu tumid at the water's edge embedded 

 iu the sand, with only their eyes in view. When alarmed or in pursuit of prey their movements 

 are very swift, and the quickness with which they bury themselves in the sand is quite wonderful." 



Their habit of ascending Southern rivers is remarkable. They are said to occur iu Lake 

 George and the other lakes at the headwaters of the Saint John's and the Ocklawaha Rivers. At 

 Jacksonville they are commonly taken in company with bream, black bass, and other fresh-water 

 fish, in winter as well as summer. 



Although present in the shoal waters of Florida throughout the year, Mr. Stearns states that 

 they are most abundant in summer. On the Connecticut coast, however, their habit of migrating 

 seaward is much more pronounced. The Noauk fishermen never find them until May. They say 

 that they never catch them until after they have fished awhile for sea bass. As early as the first 

 of October they begin to grow scarce, and none are ordinarily caught after the middle of the 

 month. I cannot find that they have ever been seen moving iu schools, though fish taken in the 

 same locality at the same time are usually quite uniform iu size. They shift their position, prob- 

 ably iu search of food, and where any are found they are plenty. This indicates that they are 

 gregarious in habit: the abundance of food in special localities sufficiently explains this fact. 



The Plaice feed upon small fish, shrimps, crabs and hermit crabs, squid, small species of 

 shell-bearing mollusks, and certain radiates, such as sand-dollars. They are frequently seen at 

 the surface, rapidly swimming, and even jumping out of the water, in pursuit of schools of sand-eels 

 and sand smelts. They also feed upon dead fish thrown out from the fish-houses. Little is known 

 of their breeding habits. All the large females observed in July and August, 1874, upon the Con- 

 necticut coast contained spawn, but this was, evidently, far from maturity. The Fish Commission 

 has obtained no very small specimens; in fact, none less than eight or nine inches in length, 

 though the fishermen speak of capturing six-inch individuals. Their average length is from sixteen 

 to thirty inches, and the weight about two and a half pounds, though it is not unusual to take 

 Individuals weighing seven or eight pounds. At Noauk about eighty fish are ordinarily packed 

 in a barrel, weighing from 160 to 175 pounds. The largest ever brought to Noauk weighed 

 twenty-six pounds. Others, of whose capture I have informed, weighed twenty, seventeen and a 

 half, and fifteen pounds. In Florida and at Proviucetown I have seen them three feet iu length. 

 A one-pound fish measures about fifteen inches; a one and a quarter pound fish, sixteen or 

 seventeen; a two-pound fish, seventeen or eighteen; a three-pound fish, about twenty; a four- 

 pound fish, about twenty- two; an eight-pound fish, about twenty-seven, and a ten-pound ti-ii. 

 about thirty inches. These proportions are taken from notes relating to a large number weighed 

 and measured at Noank, Connecticut. The Winter Flounder or Flat Fish spawns in late 

 winter and early spring near the shore, and it is possible that the Plaice breeds at about tin 

 same period. 



The most extensive fishery for the Plaice is in the waters of Southern New England. Favorite 

 fishing grounds are on sandy bottoms, at a depth of ten to twenty fathoms, along the Atlantic 

 side of Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Eastern Long Island, where they are most plentiful. 

 They are obtained in smaller numbers in the harbors and bays along the south shore of New- 

 England, on Shagwam and Middle Ground Reefs, in Fisher's Island Sound and Long Island 



