FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



271 



Its diet is much the same as that of the summer 

 flounder; chiefly small fish and squid, with crabs, 

 shrimps, shellfish, and worms. 



It spawns from May until mid-July. The eggs 

 are buoyant, 0.95 to 1.05 mm. in diameter, with 

 a single oil globule of 0.16 to 0.19 mm. 19 The 

 early stages have not been described previously, 

 but certain large mouthed and lefthanded M flat- 

 fish larvae of 8 to 11 mm. that have been taken 

 in tow nets off New Jersey, by the Grampus in 

 1913, and from Nantucket Shoals southward by 

 the Albatross II subsequently, seem likely to have 

 been young four-spots, not summer flounders, 

 because they were taken in June and July (p. 269). 

 If this identification is correct, an aggregation of 

 pigment over the rear part of the trunk, combined 

 with deep outline and a large head are distinctive 

 for this species. Small fry of 2 to 3 inches have 

 been taken at Woods Hole in autumn, evidence 

 that the fry of this flounder complete their meta- 

 morphosis and take to bottom about 3 months 

 after they are hatched. 



General range.- — This flounder has been taken 

 between the eastern part of Georges Bank and 

 the coast of South Carolina. 21 Its center of 

 abundance appears to lie between southern New 

 England and Delaware Bay. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — The four- 

 spotted flounder is so plentiful along the conti- 

 nental shelf as far eastward as the general ofling 

 of Nantucket, and to the neighboring part of 

 Georges Bank that we counted about 1,800 of 

 them trawled there, by the Eugene II in 56 hauls 

 at 47 to 67 fathoms, January 27 to February 3, 

 1950, also 968 of them on the southwestern part 

 of Georges, in 26 to 75 fathoms, in late June 1951. 

 And a few were trawled in 1931 by the Albatross 

 II also along the southern and southeastern parts 

 of Georges Bank. But this last is their most 

 easterly known outpost. 



The only records for the four-spot in the coastal 

 waters of our Gulf are from Monomoy at the 

 southern angle of Cape Cod; from the vicinity of 

 Provincetown (where Storer saw a number of 



'• Eggs artificially fertilized by O. E. Sette of the Bureau of Fisheries. 



» Lefthandness foreshadowed In the larger ones by the fact that it Is the 

 right eye that had begun to migrate. 



» The most southerly record for it is fur five specimens trawled in the 

 general ofling of Charleston, S. C, lat. 33°00' N., long. 77°44' W., at 92 

 fathoms, by Albatross III, January 30, 1950. Another flounder, AncylopsMa 

 quadrocellala QUI, similar In appoarance, for it is strikingly marked with four 

 large spots, is found along the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. 



them in June 1847) ; and from somewhere on the 

 northern shore of Massachusetts Bay where one 

 was taken by the United States Fish Commission 

 in 1878. 22 



This is a fair table fish but there is no market 

 for it at present. 



Yellowtail Limanda ferruginea (Storer) 1839 



Rusty flouxder 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2644. 



Description. — The yellowtail is right-handed 

 (that is, its eyes are on the right side and its vis- 

 cera are at the right-hand edge as the fish lies on 

 the bottom), and small-mouthed like the winter 

 flounder, the smooth flounder and the witch. But 

 it is easily distinguished from the first of these by 

 its more pointed snout, thin body, arched lateral 

 line, and more numerous fin rays; from the smooth 

 flounder by the last two characters as well as by the 

 concave dorsal (left hand) profile of its head and 

 by being scaly between the eyes; and from the 

 witch by its arched lateral line, its less numerous 

 fin rays, concave dorsal (left) profile of the head, 

 and especially by lacking the mucous pits on the 

 left (white) side of its head that are conspicuous 

 on the witch (p. 285). 



The yellowtail is a comparatively wide flounder, 

 nearly one-half as broad as it is long, with an oval 

 body. The dorsal (left hand) outline of its head 

 is more deeply concave than in any other Gulf 

 of Maine flounder; its head is narrower; its snout 

 is more pointed, and its eyes are set so close 

 together that their rounded orbits almost touch 

 each other. The fact that its mouth reaches 

 scarcely as far back as the eyes, with its small 

 teeth and thick fleshy lips, marks it off at a glance 

 from all the large-mouthed flounders. The dorsal 

 fin (76 to 85 rays) originates over the eyes, its 

 middle rays are the longest. Its anal fin is similar 

 in outline to the dorsal, but is much shorter (56 

 to 63 rays), and it is preceded by a short, sharp 

 spine pointing forward. The two ventral fins are 

 alike, and each of them is separated by a consid- 

 erable space from the anal fin. But the pectoral 

 fin on the blind side is slightly shorter than its 

 mate on the eyed side. The scales are rough on 

 the eyed side, but smooth on the blind side. 



" In one paper (Am. Jour. Set, Ser. 3, vol. 17, 1879, p. 40) Qoodo and Bean 

 state that this specimen was trawled in Oloucester Harbor; in another paper 

 (Bull. Essex Inst., vol. 11, 1879, p. 7) they credit It to the mouth of Salem 

 Harbor. 



