FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 503 



Habits. — This flounder is resident the year round wherever it is found north of 

 Cape Cod, except that in very shallow estu^-ries which are largely laid bare to the 

 sun at every tide (Duxbiuy Bay and Barnstable Harbor, for instance) the flounders 

 move out or into the deeper channels during the heat of the summer, to return in 

 the autumn, and again desert the ice-bound flats in the winter, to reappear there 

 in spring. Winter flounders sometimes perish by thousands in very hot spells of 

 siunmer weather '* in the shallow bays of Long Island, but we have never heard of 

 this happening in the Gidf of Maine where cooler water is always close at hand. On 

 the other hand they may succumb to anchor ice in winter if caught in very shoal 

 water in a severe freeze, for dead "flounders" of one sort or another are sometimes 

 reported in such locations after unusually severe weather, and observations at 

 Woods Hole have shown that temperatures near freezing (say 32° to 29°) drive 

 them down into slightly warmer water. This migration of flounders out to sea in 

 summer and back again in winter is more characteristic and regular south of Cape 

 Cod, where the coastal waters are warmer (hence the common name "winter floun- 

 ders "), than in the Gulf of Maine east of Cape Elizabeth, where they are to be 

 found in abundance in most harbors and shoal locations generally all summer, 

 either to remain over winter or to move out, according to local conditions of tem- 

 perature. Apart from these bathic migrations (which in any case extend over short 

 distances only) this is one of the most stationary of our fishes. 



In the shoal waters of Great South Bay on Long Island, N. Y., Bean (1903, 

 p. 778) describes the winter flounder as imdergoing a " partial hibernation in the mud 

 in winter," but as Breder has pointed out," this is probably an error, the failure 

 of the hook-and-line fishermen to take them in midwinter simply reflecting the fact 

 that they will not bite at that season, winter being the spawning period when win- 

 ter flounders fast as so many other fishes do. Experience at the Boothbay and Woods 

 Hole hatcheries, with the results of the trawl fishery (p. 507) , proves that they are 

 as active in winter as in summer both north and south of Cape Cod. 



Depth. — Tide mark, high or low according to the stage of the tide, is the upper 

 limit for this flounder. It even runs up into brackish water in river mouths, but 

 never, we believe, into fresh water. Its lower limit can not be stated definitely. It 

 is certainly plentiful at 10 to 20 fathoms in Cape Cod Bay and on Stellwagen Bank, 

 while the gill-netters take a considerable niunber of very large ones at about this 

 same depth about Boon Island. According to general report, however, few, if any, 

 are caught deeper than this in the inner parts of the GuK except in the Bay of 

 Fundy, where they are taken on soft bottoms down to 30 to 50 fathoms. The 

 flounder of this type, which is caught down to 70 fathoms on Georges Bank, is now 

 considered a separate, if closely allied, species, hence is treated separately (p. 507). 

 UsuaUy the smaller fish live shoalest and the larger ones deeper, but we have so 

 often seen large flounders caught in only a few feet of water that no general rule 

 can be laid down. The young fry are found chiefly in the shallows. 



" Nichols (Copeia, March 19, 1918, No. 55, pp. 37-39) describes such an occurrence. 

 "' Bulletin, United States Bureau of Fisheries, Vol. XXXVIII, 1921-22 (1923), p. 313. 



