180 HABITS OF PLAICE. 



Well Bank, on the Dutch coast, and are superior to 

 those caught in the earlier season of the year on the 

 Doggerhank. The plaice is ver}^ prolific. In a plaice I 

 had sent me by Messrs. Gilson and Quelch, of Bond 

 Street, the fish weighed 41bs. looz., the roe weighed 



PLAICE [Platessa vulgaris, PIeuro)iectes platcssa). 



lib. 9oz., and contained 144,600 eggs, but the eggs were 

 • of a large size compared with those of the turbot. 



In October, 1869, I witnessed the drawing of a seine 

 net opposite our oyster fishery at Eeculvers, near Heme 

 Bay, Kent, when a considerable number of xolaice were 

 caught ; but just as the net arrived at the edge of the 

 waves it "rolled," and nearly all the plaice escaped. A 

 fisherman crie'd, " Look out, they'll sand ! " a capital 

 expression, for I found that the fish sunk into the sand 

 with such rapidity that the operation must be seen to be 

 believed. The plaice lifts up its head and the upper 

 third of its body and then brings it down on the sand 

 three or four times with sharp, quick raps ; a small 

 cavity is thus made in the soft, wet sand, which at once 

 fills with water ; the fish then works its fins on each 

 tiide of its body with such a rapid motion that they seem 



