Habits and Adaptations 253 



most fish, rests on its stomach, with its back uppermost. The 

 adult flounder, on the other hand, lies on its side and swims 

 on its side, and to achieve this position it goes through a 

 strange transformation. An article which I once came upon 

 In the public press describes it briefly, clearly, and without 

 undue solemnity: 



"The flounder is the ichthyological acme of lassitude. He 

 begins life swimming in an upright position like any normal 

 fish. Before he is many weeks old, however, he begins to tire 

 in the cosmic struggle for existence. He sinks to the bottom, 

 stretches out on his side, and refuses to get up again. In this 

 position he finds himself with one eye staring in a futile 

 fashion into the mud. 



"The eye, apparently tiring in its efforts to pierce the pri- 

 mordial ooze, behaves in a manner still unexplained by 

 science. It moves around and joins the other optic, fortunate 

 enough to be on top. This results in the flounder being one 

 of the silliest looking of all fishes, but it also enables him to 

 achieve his aim. In piscine indolence, he lolls on the bottom 

 with his misplaced orb and its fellow peering upward for any 

 food that may drift down to him. Even this occasionally 

 wears on the flounder, and when it does he buries himself in 

 the mud where he doesn't even have to look." 



The unknown author is to be congratulated not only on 

 his sense of humor, but on a degree of accuracy not often 

 found in journalistic ventures in biology. However, the se- 

 quence of events is not exactly as he narrates them. It is 

 true that the flounders start life like any other young fish, 

 moving along in the conventional upright position. At this 

 time they are unbelievably tiny, for they, and the other flat- 

 fish like the sole, dab, plaice, and turbot, which have similar 

 life-stories, come from eggs about one-twenty-fifth of an 

 inch in diameter. The eggs develop in less than two weeks, 

 and the fry are only about one-eighth of an inch long when 



