352 THE FLOUNDER FAMILY. 



still show pigment-streaks, and thus are in. uniformity with the 

 anal in a lateral view. The dorsal and anal fins have long rays 

 towards their posterior borders, and the body of the fish is 

 somewhat quadrate in form. The dorsal fin presents 87 rays, 

 and the anal 62. On contrasting these with the forms de- 

 scribed under Mitller's topknot, and the largest of which 

 measures about 9'5 mm. (see fig.), it is clear that the present 

 forms are much older. Yet the right eye is either just visible 

 from the left, or at any rate is much less advanced towards the 

 left than in the oldest stage of what we have considered to be 

 Miiller's topknot. This would indicate, as formerly stated by 

 one of us, that the latter (i.e. the present form), in all proba- 

 bility, belongs to a smaller species, a conclusion which Holt's 

 further observations seem to corroborate, that species probably 

 being the Norwegian topknot, which occurs occasionally off 

 St Andrews Bay and along the eastern coast of Scotland to 

 the Moray Frith. It is also found on the west coast, and 

 stretches to the shores of Norway. 



Mr Cunningham thinks 1 , from the number of the fin-rays 

 and the appearance of an example he examined, that the 

 foregoing are the " larvae " of Mtiller's topknot, while the forms 

 here mentioned under Muller's topknot (p. 346), and which 

 have no spines, belong to the one-spotted topknot. With this* 

 opinion we are unable to concur, and besides, while Muller's 

 topknot is not uncommon in this region, no example of the 

 one-spotted form has ever been obtained. 



THE SAIL-FLUKE. (Lepidorhombus whiff. (Penn.) Walb.) 



The earlier authors do not appear to have seen a ripe 

 sail-fluke, or "megrim," as it is often called by the Scottish 

 fishermen. No mention of the subject is made by Parnell or 

 Couch, while Day only quotes Thompson of Belfast as to an 

 example which had just shed its eggs on the 31st October. The 

 authors of the Scandinavian Fishes mention that Diiben and 

 Koren assume the spawning-season to be spring, as they took a 

 female with well-developed ovaries on the 4th April. Raffaele 



1 Marketable Fishes, p. 278. 



