342 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



with other "Maischollen," Platessa vulgaris Cuv., and a small Kleist,* 

 Rhombus Icevis Bond. The vender asked me the name of the " Scholle, 1 ' 

 which was unknown to the fisherman who had caught it. The boats 

 had gone out farther than usual, where at times they catch fish with 

 which they are unacquainted. Her attention had been called to the 

 Rhombus, because it was smooth and spotless, and because its head was 

 like that of a Steinbutt, but less tuberculated, and the eyes were on the 

 left side. The above-mentioned plaice, 32 cm long, had a head like that 

 of the turbot; the eyes, also, on the left side, with the tubercles not so 

 prominent as those of the ordinary plaice. The yellow spots common 

 to the plaice were present ; but on the head and upon the upper left 

 side, especially along the curved lateral line, were small epidermal ossi- 

 fications which were rather numerous just behind the gill coverings. 

 These protuberances were not so large as to produce bony areas on the 

 head, but they were considerably larger and more prominent than the 

 small roughness of Platessa fiesus L. The anal fin did not extend so 

 close to the caudal fin as it does in the turbot; the body was also more 

 elongated than that of the latter, or that of the plaice. The teeth were 

 somewhat sharp, but not so sharply pointed as those of the turbot. The 

 meat, in the firmness of the muscular tissue and in taste, approached 

 that of the plaice. 



There is no doubt but that the specimen, which unfortunately could 

 no longer be obtained, was a bastard. The shape of the head and the 

 curve of the lateral line totally exclude the possibility of a cross between 

 Platessa vulgaris and Platessa fiesus ; accordingly there only remains the 

 possibility of a cross between Platessa vulgaris and Rhombus maximus. 

 Both of these parent forms are considerably smaller in size in the Baltic 

 Sea than in the North Sea. 



Several years ago a fisherman named Bitgart, of Warnemunde, spoke 

 to me of a kind of flat fish, which he called Blender, which was caught 

 farther out in the sea. At that time, from his incomplete description, I 

 took this species to be Rhombus Icevis, but perhaps it may have been 

 a bastard like the above ; at least, the name points that way. 



Bostock. 



* Along the Elbe coast, in Stade and in Hamburg, Rhombus Icevis is commonly called 

 Kleis, m. Kleist f. Kleise; along the Weser (Bremen) it has received the name Tar- 

 butt, probably from the English "turbot," which, however, is the name of the Stein- 

 butt. 



The fishermen of Travemiinde name Rhombus Icevis " Margretenbiitt," while "Kleis," 

 "Kleishe," and "Plattdisen" are their names for Platessa limanda, called "Shiining" 

 by the Warnemunde fishermen. Compare Lenz in Wittmack, Beitr. zur Fischereista- 

 tistik, 1879. 



