PECULIAKITIES OF PLAICE FROM DIFFEKENT FISHING GROUNDS. 331 



Goss * state that in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridcre, 

 Mass., there are a number of specimens from Trieste. Xorthwards the 

 species extends to the White Sea. The evidence of this is that Smitt 

 {loc. cit. p. 395) mentions a young plaice from Archangel which agrees 

 with the form described by Pallas from Alaska and Kamtchatka under 

 the name PL quad rituhcrculatus, and by Steindachner under the name 

 PL Palhtsii. Smitt regards these names as synonyms of PL lAatessa. 

 I do not admit the synonymy, and shall discuss the matter presently; 

 but we may take it that the plaice extends to the White Sea. We have 

 seen that it is abundant on the south coast of Iceland, and extends into 

 the Baltic as far as Greifsvvald. But the plaice is not mentioned as 

 occurring on the coast of Greenland, and is certainly absent from the 

 east coast of North America. In the Pacific, however, forms which must 

 be regarded as local varieties of the plaice, or very closely similar to it, 

 reappear, and I will here give the history of these forms so far as it is 

 known. The following is a list of the names under which the specimens 

 have been described or mentioned : — 



Pkuroncctes quadrituhercidatus, Pallas, Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. iii. 423, 

 1811. Bean, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1881. Jordan and Gilbert, 

 Synopsis Fish. N.A. 1882. 



Parophrys quadrituherculatus, Glinther, Cat, Fish. Brit. Mus. iv. 

 p. 456 (copied). 



Pleuronectes Pcdlasii, Steindachner, Ichth. Beitr., S.B., k. Akad. d. 

 Wiss. Wien, Ixxx. 1880. 



Platessa quadrituhcrculcUa, Jordan and Goss, Flounders and Soles 

 of Am. and Eur. Rep. U.S. Fish. Com. for 1886, pub. 1889. 



The original description of quadrituheradatus by Pallas is as 

 follows : — 



Longitudo {11 " 4'" ) fere pedalis, latitude summa cum pinnis 5 " 11 '" 

 sine pinnis 4 ". Forma Flesi. Caput a latere oculato, fusco nigricante, 

 tuberculis quatuor osseis, conicis obtusis prominentissimis, serie lineae 

 laterali continua, quorum duo approximata anterius, tertium orbitae 

 superioris postico margini contiguum, quartum maximum sinui 

 branchiali adsidet, Linea lateralis in utroque latere a sinu branchial! 

 levissime descendens, dehinc media rectissima speciem cateuulae 

 referens. Corpus glaberrimum, squamis subdistinctis obsoletissimis, 

 Cauda evidentius squamosa usque in radiorum intervalla. Opercula 

 angulata. Pinnae pectorales rad. 11 subacutae ; ventrales falcatae, rad. 

 6. P. dorsi ab orbitis incipiens rad. 70, P. ani pollicari a ventralibus 

 distantia, rad. 51. Spina subcutanea ad anum. P. caudae rotundata, 

 radiis 18 robustis bifidis. 



* " Flounders and Soles of America and Europe." Report of U.S. Fish Commisnon 

 for 1886. 



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