THE CALIFORNIA "SOLES." 



IlllTOIil.OSbOlDKS JOHDANI Loelvillgton. 



This species is known universally as the "Sole." I have also heard tin- Italian name "Soglia" 

 applied to it more often than to related species. It reaches a length of eighteen inches, anil a 

 weight of six or eight pounds, the average being about three. It ranges from Monterey to I'uget 

 Sound, being comparatively scarce north of Cape Mendocino, but in Monterey Bay the commonest 

 species, and forming probably fifteen per cent, of the Flounders in the market of San Francisco. 

 Great numbers are taken by Chinameu on set-lines baited with anchovies. It lives in water of no 

 great depth. It feeds upon anchovies, shrimps, and all sorts of small fishes and crnstacea. It 

 spawns in early summer. Nothing especial is known of its breeding habits. Its enemies and 

 diseases are similar to those of other Flounders. 



It is one of the best of the Flounders as a food-fish. Great numbers are dried yearly by the 

 Chinese, who suspend them by strings on a frame placed on the roofs of the houses, as they are 

 too fleshy to dry well on tables. Here they rustle in the wind, and, striking together, produce a 

 sound like the wind among the leaves. 



"It appears strange," remarks Lockington, "that this common species should have escaped 

 the notice of naturalists until last year. In the markets of San Francisco it abounds throughout 

 every month of the year, and in Monterey Bay it is the most abundant of its tribe. Professor 

 Jordan informs me that about five hundred pounds' weight of this fish are taken daily at Monterey 

 alone by the Chinese, besides large quantities taken by the Italians. An examination of the stock 

 in trade of the Chinese located near Monterey, proved that over nineteen-twentieths of the fish 

 that dry on hurdles and flap in the wind around the hovels consisted of this fish; a few sharks, 

 with Psettichthys melanostictus and Citharichthys sordidiis, constituting the remainder." 1 



It occasionally reaches sixteen inches or more in length and a weight of five pounds, and is 

 considered one of the best of its tribe, but is inferior to the Black-dotted Flounder, the Turbot, and 

 one or two others. It becomes rare northward, yet occurs in Puget Sound; south of Monterey it 

 is not on lecord. 



HIPPOGLOSSOIDES EXiLis Jordan and Gilbert. 



This species is one of the smallest, reaching a length of about nine inches, and a weight of less 

 than a pound. It inhabits dee)) waters on sandy bottoms from San Francisco to Puget Sound. 

 It is taken in the sweep-nets of the paranzellc in spring off Point Reyes in enormous numbers, 

 sometimes nearly a ton at a time. In Puget Sound it is less common, although frequently taken 

 in seines. It has not been noticed by naturalists until the present year, and has probably been 

 rarely taken until the introduction of the paran/elle. It feeds on small fishes, crustaceans, etc. 

 It spawns in spring, perhaps coming from still deeper water, as in the winter none wen- noticed in 

 the markets. Its enemies and diseases are unknown. Most of those taken by the paninzclle are 

 thrown overboard. The flesh is soil, and the fish does not sell for enough to pay for bringing it ill. 



This species is readily distinguished from the, preceding by its much more slender form, and 

 by the large si/e of the scales, which are very delicately ciliate on their hinder edge. 'I lie eyes 

 aie very large. I heir longitudinal diameter contained about three and one-third times in the length 

 of the head. The greatest depth is contained about three and a half times in the total length. 



In July it was tolerably common in the markets of San Francisco, and its previous raritv i> 

 probably occasioned by the fact that it is only taken in tolerably deep waler. and is too small to be 

 considered of much value. 



'Report. ConiniissioMc] ol' I'Mi.-n.-s St;ite of Cnlit'ornia, 1880, p. 25. 



