FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 495 



where a single specimen was taken by the United States Fish Commission in 1878." 

 However, it is so rare about Massachusetts Bay that we ourselves have never 

 seen or heard of one caught there of late years, and it is unknown farther north. 



Habits. — iilthough this is a rather common fish about Woods Hole in May 

 and June and still more so along the coast of New York, very little is known of its 

 habits, but it seems to lie deeper as a rule than the summer flounder, usually being 

 caught in 7 to 17 fathoms in Vineyard Sound. 



Food. — The diet of the four-spotted flounder is much the same as that of its 

 relative — that is, chiefly small fish and squid, with crabs, shrimps, shellfish, and 

 worms. 



Breeding habits. — This flounder spawns in May. Its eggs are buoyant,"* about 

 0.96 mm. in diameter, and without oil globule. The larval stages have not been 

 described previously, but certain larvas of 8 to 11 mm. taken in our tow nets 

 off the coast of New Jersey in 1913 (stations 10070 and 10082) are located in this 

 genus by their large mouths and by left-handedness, which is foreshadowed in the 

 larger ones by the fact that it is the right eye that has begun to migrate. The 

 dates of capture (July 19 and August 1) suggest that they belong to the four-spotted 

 and not to the summer flounder. If this identification be correct an aggregation 

 of the pigment over the rear part of the trunk combined with relatively deep outline 

 and a large head are likewise diagnostic. Small fry of 2 to 3 inches have been 

 taken at Woods Hole in autumn, showing that this flounder completes its meta- 

 morphosis and takes to bottom about three months after hatching. 



170. Rusty dab (Limanda ferruginea Storer) 



Yellowtail; Dab; Rusty flounder; Fluke; Sand dab; Mud dab 



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



Description. — The dab is right-handed (that is, eyes on the right side and guts 

 at the right-hand margin as the fish lies on bottom) and small-mouthed like the 

 winter, smooth, and witch flounders; but it is easily distinguished from the first 

 by its more pointed snout, thin body, arched lateral line, and more numerous fin 

 rays; from the second by the last two characters as well as by the concave dorsal 

 (left) profile of its head and by being scaly between the eyes; and from the third 

 by its arched lateral line, its less numerous fin rays, the concave dorsal profile of 

 its head, and especially b}^ lacking the mucus pits on the left (white) side of its 

 head, which are so conspicuous in the witch (p. 511). 



The dab is a comparatively broad flounder, being nearly one-half as broad as 

 long, with oval body. The dorsal outline of the head is more concave than in any 

 other Gulf of Maine flounder, its head narrower, its snout more pointed, and its 

 eyes set so close together that their rounded orbits almost touch each other. The 

 fact that its mouth does not gape back as far as the eyes, with its small teeth and 



" In one paper Goode and Bean (1879g, p. 40) state that this specimen was trawled in Gloucester Harbor. In another paper 

 (1879, p. 7) they credit it to the mouth o! Salem Harbor. 



5' They have been hatched artifleially at the Woods Hole hatchery. 



