266 Bass, Pike, and Perch 



the choicest shrimp on one of Harrison's best 

 Sproat hooks on a snell of the finest silkworm 

 fibre. My heart goes out to the boy angler with 

 his cane pole and cut-bait, fishing for cunners. 

 And should he in time become the most finished 

 salmon fisher, he will look back to his cunner 

 days as conducive of more real pleasure than any 

 he may have found since. The cunner is here 

 recorded for the urchin with the cane pole. 



THE FLOUNDER 



{Psendoplexo'onedes americamis) 



There are quite a number of flounders, or fiat- 

 fishes, on the East Coast, but the one best known 

 to juvenile anglers is the one with the long name 

 recorded above. It belongs to the flatfish family 

 Ple^tronectidcE, and was noticed by Schopf as early 

 as 1 788, and from his description was named by 

 Walbaum Pleuronectes amcjncainis, which means, 

 literally, " the American side-swimmer." It in- 

 habits the North Atlantic coast from Labrador 

 to the Chesapeake Bay, and is abundant in all 

 the bays and estuaries of the Middle states, where 

 it is variously known as flatfish, flounder, winter 

 flounder, mud-dab, etc. 



Its body is elliptical in outline, about twice as 



