THE FLOUNDER FAMILY. 387 



flounder at the end of its first year. It is probable that 

 the average first-year flounder will be about 4 5 inches in 

 length, perhaps a little less than the one-year plaice. 



The flounder, therefore, commences life in the surface- 

 water of the sea, at a distance varying roughly from 1 to perhaps 

 8 or 9 miles from shore. As development proceeds it is drifted 

 shore wards, until the post-larval form, having effected, whilst 

 in mid-water, its change to the left side, commences to 

 acquire the adult characters and takes to the bottom. Larval 

 and post-larval plaice, drifting in from the spawning areas, out 

 beyond those of the flounder, follow the same course and 

 shortly after the transformation is complete the little flounders 

 and plaice keep company in the rock-pools and shallows of the 

 shore. It is at this stage, when the two species live somewhat 

 the same life, with the same food and enemies, that the 

 differences in their structure are hardest to make out. As 

 growth in size proceeds they part company, each species taking 

 its own particular direction. The little plaice move slowly 

 seawards over the sandy flats and eventually pass the rest 

 of their life in deeper water offshore, whilst the young 

 flounders seek out the estuaries and mouth of rivers, and 

 revelling in the mud and sand and the abundance of food 

 hidden therein, they follow up the course of the rivers inland 

 until, as in the Severn, impeded by locks and other barriers. 

 On the attainment of maturity, they migrate out to the sea 

 to discharge the duty of reproduction. 



THE SOLE. (Solea vulgaris, Quensel.) 



The egg of the sole has been known on the east coast of 

 Scotland since the Trawling Expeditions of 1S84, when an adult 

 with ripe eggs was captured in August ten miles from land (off 

 St Abbs Head). They floated buoyantly, but, no male having 

 been obtained, their development could not be followed. The 

 spawning-period of the sole off the east coast of Scotland 

 stretches from the middle of April, the eggs then appearing in 

 St Andrews Bay, till the beginning of August, as just 

 mentioned, a period of about four months. Dr Raffaele next 



252 



