332 PECULIARITIES OF PLAICE FROM DIFFERENT FISHING GROUNDS. 



Now there is one point in this description which shows that the fish 

 described was not a plaice at all. The four tubercles are not all behind 

 the eyes, but only the third and fourth. Jordan and Goss describe 

 their specimen as having about five tubercles above the operculum, and 

 D. 68, A. 50. Bean gives no description, but states that his specimen 

 was obtained at Kodiak ; Jordan and Goss' specimen was also collected at 

 Kodiak, and it is not clear whether it was the same specimen or whether 

 there were two. Kodiak is a large island off the south coast of Alaska. 



In the British Museum collection there is a single specimen identified 

 as the quadrituherculatns of Pallas, and collected by the U.S. Fish Com. 

 steamer Albatross. The identification is evidently that of the American 

 naturalists, and the specimen leaves no doubt as to what were the 

 characters of the fish so identified. The specimen was taken at 

 Herendeen Bay, a bay on the north side of the Alaska Peninsula in 

 5G° north latitude and 161° west longitude. The characters of the 

 specimen are given in the tables below, and it will be seen that they 

 are similar to those of a plaice. The body is rather broad and the head 

 long, but in these respects the fish does not differ from the plaice of the 

 North Sea to any important extent, and it must be remembered that we 

 can make no very minute comparison between spirit specimens and 

 fresh specimens. The tubercles on the head are, however, peculiar, and 

 have a character which has not been observed in any Atlantic plaice ; 

 they are remarkably prominent, regularly conical, and uniform in size. 

 In number and position they are like the tubercles of the plaice. The 

 scales are like those of the plaice, cycloid and reduced so that they do 

 not overlap. The lateral line is slightly elevated above the pectoral fin, 

 but otherwise straight as in the plaice. The specimen is male, and the 

 scales on the fin-rays are spinulated as in the majority of male plaice. 

 The teeth seem to be rather smaller than in the North Sea plaice. 



We find then that in the North Pacific, about the shores of Kodiak 

 and the Alaska Peninsula, there is a local variety of the plaice, of 

 which only a few specimens have been obtained, and that this form 

 has been erroneously identified with the Fl. quadritv.lercidatus of Pallas. 

 The depth of water at which it was taken is not stated. 



The only other record we have of a plaice-like fish in the North 

 Pacific is Steindachner's account of PI. Pallasii. The specimens so 

 named came from Kamtchatka. The characters described are five 

 depressed bony tubercles with blunt outer edges in a horizontal row 

 between the eye and the lateral line. Dorsal rays, 63-68 ; anal, 

 48-53 ; all the fin-rays scaleless ; scales small, rounded. A figure is 

 given showing the tubercles more rounded and less prominent than in 

 the British Museum specimen. 



South of Alaska and Kamtchatka we have no evidence that the 



