516 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHEEIES 



All these records, like those for other flatfish and gadoids, are concentrated in 

 the southwestern part of the Gulf, which must be an important nursery for the 

 witch (fig. 255). 



With its larvae so plentiful and easily recognized, and its pelagic stage so long, 

 this species would no doubt prove an especially favorable object for the study of 

 larval migrations. We may note in passing that the presence of young fry at all 

 stages from immediately after their metamorphosis (that is, 4 to 6 months old) 

 in the Bay of Fimdy, where few or none are hatched, points to an immigration 

 of the late larvae or of the youngest fry at about the time they take to the bottom. 



Commercial importance. — The witch is of little commercial importance and no 

 record is kept of the catch either of the otter trawlers or of the shore fisheries. In 

 fact few fishermen distinguish it from other floimders, consequently there is no 

 available basis for comparing its local abundance in the Gulf of Maine with that of 

 other species. It is certainly plentiful enough in Massachusetts Bay to yield a 

 considerable catch when demand arises, for as much as 500 pounds have been 

 caught there in a 15 to 20 minute drag of a small beam trawl, and we took 48 good- 

 sized ones in one drag in Ipswich Bay from the Grampus in July, 1912. 



The introduction of the witch into American markets is only a matter of time, 

 for it is an excellent table fish, perhaps the best of all our flatfishes in flavor, while 

 for so thin a floimder the bases of its fins are provided with surprisingly large amounts 

 of gelatinous fat of the sort for which the European turbot is famed. 



The otter or beam trawl is the only gear adapted to the capture of the witch 

 flounder on a commercial scale. 



175. Sand flounder (Lophopsetta maculata Mitcliill) 



Spotted flounder; Windowpane; New York plaice; Sand dab; Spotted tur- 

 bot; English turbot; Watery flounder 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2660. 



Description. — This is the closest North American relative of the European 

 turbot and brill. It is left-handed (eyes and guts at the left) and large-mouthed 

 like the summer and four-spotted floimders but is readily separable from them by 

 the outlines of its ventral fins. In all other Gulf of Maine flatfish except the hog- 

 choker (p. 522) these are narrow at the base and widen toward the tip, but in the 

 sand flounder they are as wide at the base as at the tip, each simulating a detached 

 segment of the anal. Furthermore the two ventrals are not alike either in location 

 or in size, the left-hand (upper) fin, which is the longer of the pair, being practically 

 a continuation of the anal so far as external appearance goes, whereas the right- 

 hand (lower) ventral is situated a short distance up the right side of the throat. 

 The general appearance of the dorsal fin is no less diagnostic, for its first 10 or 12 

 rays are not only free from the fin membrane over the outer half of their length 

 but are branched, so that they form a conspicuous fringe which is without parallel 

 among Gulf of Maine flounders. Furthermore the sand flounder is more nearly 

 round in outhne than any of the other local flatfishes (only about one and one-half 

 times as long as broad) and so thin that its body is translucent when held up to the 



