286 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Figure 146. — Witch flounder (Glyptocephalus cynoglossus) . From Goode. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



gnout and the lower jaw) are scaly, but the scales 

 are smooth to the touch, which make the witch as 

 slippery to hold as a female smooth flounder 

 (p. 284). 



Color. — By all accounts (and the fish we have 

 seen are in line with this) the witch is less variable 

 in color than most of the flatfishes. Most of them 

 are brownish or russet gray on the eyed side, 

 either uniform or with darker transverse bars, 

 with the vertical fins of the general body hue, 

 tinted or tinged with violet, and either plain or 

 spotted. The pectoral fin membrane on the eyed 

 side is dusky or even black, a feature distinctive of 

 this particular flatfish. The lower (blind) side 

 is white, and more or less dotted with minute dark 

 points. An occasional fish is colored on the under 

 side as well as on the upper side; one of this sort, 

 19 inches long, was landed at the Boston Fish 

 Pier early in March 1931. 



Size. — The maximum length is about 25 inches, 

 and fish of 23 or 24 inches, weighing about 4 

 pounds, are not uncommon. But the general run 

 of those caught are only about 12 to 20 inches long. 



Habits. — The witch flounder is rather a deep- 

 water fish, seldom caught shoal er than 10 or 15 

 fathoms once it has taken to bottom, though 

 taken occasionally close inshore (see footnote, 

 p. 288). Off the American coast the best catches 

 are made between about 60 fathoms and about 150 

 fathoms. Thus the Albatross III caught an 

 average of about 57 witch flounders per trawl 

 haul at 100 to 150 fathoms on the southwestern part 

 of Georges Bank in mid-May f 950. but an average 



of only about one fish per haul between 31 fathoms 

 and SO fathoms. And they have been trawled 

 widespread down the continental slope as deep as 

 858 fathoms off southern Nova Scotia; to 732 

 fathoms off Marthas Vineyard; to 788 fathoms off 

 Chesapeake Bay; and to 602 fathoms off North 

 Carolina. 84 



In Swedish waters, according to Melander, 85 

 the best catches are made between 80 and 140 

 fathoms. 



They are caught most abundantly on fine 

 muddy sand, on clay, or even on mud. They 

 are said to frequent hard reefs in Scandinavian 

 waters, but this does not seem to be the case in 

 the Gulf of Maine, though they are common there 

 on the smooth ground between rocky patches. 



When the witch has once taken to the bottom 

 it seems to be even more stationary in our gulf 

 than some other flounders, for it is caught the year 

 round, with no evidence that it moves in or off 

 shore with the change of the seasons. In Swedish 

 waters, however, it is said to work up into shoaler 

 water in autumn, and deeper again in late winter 

 and spring. 86 



It occurs in the Gulf of Maine in temperatures 

 ranging from about 35°-38° F. (late winter and 

 early spring), to 45°-48° (late summer and early 

 autumn), according to precise locality and depth. 

 In the Gulf of St. Lawrence it occurs in the icy 



« Goode and Dean (Smithsonian Contr. Knowl., vol. 30, 1895. p. 433) give 

 a long list of deep-water stations for the witch off southern New England. 



» Pub. de Circonstance No. 85, Cons. Internat. Esplor. Mer, 1955, p. 3. 



« Melander, Pub. de Circonstance, Cons. Internat. Explor. Mer. No. 95, 

 1925, p. 3. 



