193 



LONG FLOUNDER. 



Platessa elongata, YABREI.I; Br. Fishes, vol. ii, p. 318. 



Pleuronecies elongatus, GUNTHER; Cat. Br. M., vol. iv, p. 451. 



THIS is also regarded as amongst the rarer examples of 

 British fishes; and so rare is it that hitherto two specimens 

 only have been on record, one of which was furnished to 

 Mr. Yarrell from Bridgewater Bay, in Devonshire, by Mr. 

 Baker, at which place also the other was afterwards obtained. 

 And even the example which was in Mr. Yarrell's possession 

 has since been so far lost sight of, that it was not handed 

 over to the British Museum when the collections of that 

 gentleman came into the possession of that public institution. 

 It is with much pleasure, therefore, that I find myself in 

 possession of two examples, for which I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Edmund T. Higgins, Esq., who procured them 

 from Weston, in Somersetshire; and as this lies within the 

 same district as Bridgewater, we may suppose that the range 

 of this fish is exceedingly limited, and that, perhaps, even 

 there its haunts are beyond the tracks of ordinary fishing. 

 Our figure is from one of these examples, which, however, 

 had lost its proper colour; but we choose to represent it in 

 the condition in which we find it, rather than risk the danger 

 of tinging it of a doubtful colour from description. 



The example described was seven inches and three fourths 

 in length, of which the body (exclusive of the tail) measured 

 six inches and one eighth; breadth of the body one inch and 

 six eighths; head short, measuring from the snout to the 

 border of the gill-covers one inch and a fourth; under jaw 

 protruded; gape moderately large; angle of the mouth 

 depressed. Eyes large, the lowermost a little advanced, a 

 prominent ridge between them. Body thin, shaped much like 



VOL. III. 2 C 



