REPOKT OP COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 67 



of posterior third of fin tlie highest; origin of anal directly under 

 angle of preopercle; base of ventrals long, that of the eyed side ex- 

 tending along ridge of body from notch in isthmus to front of anal, 

 base of ventral on blind side shorter; pectoral reaching past curve 

 f»n eyed side, its mate much smaller; cordal rather long. Color light 

 olive l)rown, almost translucent, everywhere marbled with paler, 

 and with many small, irregular, sharply defined black spots; dorsal, 

 anal, and caudal with larger, round, l:)lended spots of dark l)rown; 

 pectoral with brown, interrupted cross lines. 



B. SOLEIDAE. 



Body oblong or elongate, usually scaly; mouth very small, much 

 twisted toward the eyed side; the teeth in villiform Ijands, very small . 

 or obsolete; eyes small, close together, with or without a bony ridge 

 between them; edge of preopercle adnate, concealed by the skin and 

 scales; the gill openings narrow, the gill membranes adnate to the 

 shoulder girdle above; pectoral fins small or wanting; ventral fins 

 small, one or both sometimes wanting. Vertebroe usually in in- 

 creased numbers. Similar to the Pleuronectidce in structure, but 

 much degraded, the fins and teeth having lost many of their dis- 

 tinctive qualities. They are naturally cUvisible into three sub- 

 families, each quite distinct from the others, and possibly independ- 

 ently descended or degraded from normal Pleuronectidce. 



ACHIRUS. 



Eyes and color on the right side. Body oblong, bluntly rounded 

 anteriorly. Head small; eyes small, close together, the upper eye 

 in advance of the lower, the two separated by a bony ridge; mouth 

 small, somewhat turned toward the colored side; nasal flaps present, 

 the nostril of the blind side fringed; lip of the colored side fringed; 

 teeth very small, on blind side only; the gill openings rather narrow, 

 but confluent below, not reduced to a slit; the branchiostegal region 

 scaled. Head closely scaled everywhere; scales on the blind side 



