[33] FLOUNDERS AND SOLES. 257 
28. PLEURONECTES MAXIMUS. 
‘ (THE TURBOT.) 
[Plates IX and X.] 
a. Var. maximus. 
Rhombus aculeatus Rondelet, De Piscibus, and of early pre-Linnxan writers. 
Pleuronectes maximus Linneus, Syst. Nat., ed. x, 271, 1758, and ed. xii, 459 (and of 
early writers generally). 
Scophthalmus maximus Rafinesque, Indice, 14. 
Tthombus maximus Giinther, iv, 407, 1862. Steindachner, Ichthyol. Berichte, vi, 1868, 
48 (Lisbon, Vigo, Trieste, Constantinople, Odessa, Cadiz). Day, Fishes Great 
Britain and Ireland, vol. ii, p. 11, plate xevi. 
Psetia maxima Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fish., ii, 302, 1839. 
Pleuronectes cyclops ‘‘ Donovan, British Fishes, iv, pl. 90,” 1801. 
Pleuronectes tuberculatus Shaw, Gen’! Zool., iv, 312, 1803. 
Rhombus aculeatus Gottsche, Wiegm. Archiv, 1835, 172. 
b. Var. meoticus. 
Pleuronectes meoticus Pallas, Zoogr. Ross. As., iii, 419, 1811. 
Rhombus meoticus Giinther, iv, 409, 1862 (Erzeroum). 
Rhombus stellosus Bennett, ‘‘ Proc. Zool. Soc., 1835, 92” (Erzeroum). 
Rhombus torosus Rathke, Fauna der Krym., 349, 1837 (Crimea). 
Rhombus rhombilis Rathke, Fauna der Krym., 351, 1837 (Crimea). 
Habitat.— All coasts of Europe except the extreme north. Variety 
meeoticus in the Black Sea and extending into the Mediterranean. | 
This species is the famous turbot of Europe, a broad, thick flounder, 
reaching a large size, its surface nearly scaleless and covered with rough 
warts. Inspite of numerous statements to the contrary, the turbot has 
never been found in American waters. The fish so called by the Bahama 
and Key West fishermen, and which they often maintain is the turbot 
of Europe, is a trigger-fish, Balistes carolinensis Gmelin. 
The turbot is an excellent food-fish, generally common on the coasts 
of Europe, and everywhere highly prized. It is the most valuable of 
the European flounders. ’ 
According to Dr. Steindachner, there is a complete gradation be- 
tween the ordinary turbot in which the scales are obsolete and concealed, 
and the scaly turbot (var. me@oticus), which is more or less completely 
scaly, at least on the left side. Seindachner observes (Ichth. Berichte, 
ii, 48, 1868) : 
“Completely scaled on the sides of the body and the head (in part 
also on the blind side) is a very large individual from Lisbon and two 
smaller ones from Vigo, and from the Baltic Sea; for the greater part 
scaly onfour examples from Trieste ; only here and there on two examples 
from Odessa and Constantinople, and finally naked on numerous ex- 
amples from Trieste, Cadiz, and the German Ocean.” 
The turbot reaches a weight of 40 to 50 pounds or more. 
Khombus torosus Rathke, described from the Crimea, is apparently a 
. local variety of Pl. maximus, having the warts on the body elliptical 
. S. Mis. 90——17 
