THE FLOUNDERS 



Family LXXII. PlcuroncctidcB 



Flat fish, with eyes distorted, square, ovoid, rhomboid, long, 

 Some cased in mail, some slippery-backed, the feeble and 



the strong, 

 Sedan'd on poles, or dragged on hooks, or poured from tubs 



like water, 

 Gasp side by side, together piled, in one promiscuous slaughter. 



— Badham. 



Body strongly compressed, oval or ellipical in outline; head 

 unsymmetrical, the cranium twisted, both eyes being on the 

 same side of the body, which is horizontal in life, the eyed side 

 being uppermost and coloured, the blind side lowermost and 

 usually plain. In the very young the bones of the head are symmetri- 

 cal, one eye on each side, and the body is vertical in the water, 

 but the cranium very soon becomes twisted so as to bring both eyes 

 on one side. Eyes large and usually well separated; mouth large 

 or small, teeth always present, premaxillaries protractile; pseudo- 

 branchiie present; preopercular margin more or less distinct, not 

 hidden by the skin and scales. 



Further description is not necessary, as there is no mistaking 

 a flounder. Everyone who see a flounder recognizes it at once 

 as such, and everyone knows what "flat as a flounder" means. 

 The family is a large one, embracing about 55 genera and nearly 

 500 species, nearly all of which are carnivorous, inhabiting sandy 

 bottoms in all seas from the Polar regions to the Tropics, and many 

 of them are important food-fishes. 



The family divides readily into 3 subfamilies, as indicated in 

 the following key: 



a. Ventral fins symmetrical, similar in position and form of base, the 



one on coloured side not extended along the ridge of the 

 abdomen. 



b. Mouth nearly symmetrical, the teeth about equally developed 



on both sides ; Halibut tribe, 521 



bb. Mouth unsymmetrical, the teeth chiefly on the blind side; 

 eyes and colour on right side ; Flounder tribe, 521 



520 



