390 FISHES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



markings on the body disappear with age. There is in the National Museum one 

 specimen collected by Mr. R. E. Earll in Middle Sound near Wilmington in 1880. 



Genus PSEUDOPLEURONECTES Bleeker. Winter Flounders. 



This genus, which contains 1 American species, is distinguished by firm, 

 regularly placed, ctenoid scales on the eyed side; a single row of incisor teeth on 

 under (right) side of each jaw; lateral line without arch; and scaly fin-rays. 

 {Pseudopleuronectes, false Pleuronectes.) 



336. PSEUDOPLEURONECTES AMERICANUS (Walbaum). 

 Winter Flounder; Common Flat-fish. 



Pleuronectes americaniis Walbaum, Artedi Genera Piscium, 113, 1792; New York. 



Pseudopleuronectes americaniis, Yarrow, 1877, 205: Beaufort. Jordan & Gilbert, 1879, 338; Beaufort (after 



Yarrow). Smith & Kendall, 1897, 173; Neuse River. Jordan & Evermann, 1898, 2647, pi. ccclxxix, 



fig. 933. 



Diagnosis. — Form elliptical, the depth contained 2.25 times in length; head .25 length; 

 upper (right) side thickly covered with ctenoid scales, underside nearly naked; jaws unsymmet- 

 rical, only the left side of each toothed; teeth close together and forming a continuous cutting 

 edge; interorbital sjDace .5 width of eye, convex, scaly; scales in lateral series about 83; dorsal 

 rays 65, the longest shorter than pectoral fins; anal rays 48. Color: above dull brown, some- 

 times obscurely spotted or mottled, sometimes nearly uniform; white below. 



The common flat-fish or winter flounder ranges from Labrador to Virginia, 

 a-id occurs as a straggler in North Carolina and Georgia. It is very abundant 

 in southern New England, and is an important food fish from Chesapeake Bay 

 northward, being caught with lines and nets. The maximum weight is under 5 

 pounds, and the average under 2 pounds. Yarrow reported the fish as rare at 

 Beaufort; later collectors do not appear to have met with it. Some years ago 

 the United States Bureau of Fisheries received from New Bern a specimen a foot 

 in length that had been taken in Neuse River near that place. 



Genus SYACIUM Ranzani. 



In this genus the body is elliptical and sinistral, the mouth is moderate with 

 curved gape, the interorbital space is very broad in the male and narrower in the 

 female, the vomer has no teeth, the gill-rakers are short and thick, the lateral 

 line is straight, the scales are ciliate, both pectoral fins are present, the dorsal 

 fin is low and has no elevated anterior rays, and the caudal is short. Four 

 American species, the range of 2 of which extends to the South Atlantic coast. 

 (Syacium, a little pulse; a name of no obvious application.) 



337. SYACIUM PAPILLOSUM (Linnseus). 



Pleuronectes papillosus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, ed. x, 271, 1758' Brazil. 

 Syacium papillosum, Jordan & Evermann, 1898, 2371, \i\. ccclxxxiii, fig. 941. 



Diagnosis. — Depth contained 2.33 times in length; head contained 3.66 times in length; 

 mouth rather large, the maxillary extending to middle of eye; eye large, .25 length of head, 

 lower eye in advance of upper; gill-rakers about 10, 8 below angle, the longest equal to pupil; 

 scales 50 to 60; dorsal rays 80, fin beginning in advance of lower eye, the first rays arising on 



