167 



CARTER. 



MARY SOLE. QUEEN's SOLE.? 



Wliiff, Jago; Synopsis Piscium. 



" Ray; pi. 2, f. 2. 



" LiNNEAN Transactions, vol. xiv, p. 78. 



Pleuronedes megastoma, Donovan; pi. 51. 



Rhombus vierjastoma, Yakeell. 



This may be called a common fish along the south coasts 

 of Britain, but how far it answers to some of the flatfishes 

 found in the Mediterranean Sea or south of Europe, which 

 are designated by the appellation of Oculata, from the eye-like 

 or circular spots which lie along the borders of their coloured 

 surface, I have not the means of knowing, since the figures of 

 the latter which I have seen are very imperfect, and the 

 descriptions little less so. But in Cornwall the Carter is not 

 unfrequently taken with a line, as well as in the trawl, and I 

 have found a fish three or four inches long in its stomach; 

 but it is little valued in the market on account of its meagre 

 appearance, the quantity of flesh which clothes its skeleton 

 being in les^ abundance than is common with any other of 

 the British flatfishes. The body is indeed so thin as to 

 authorise the name of Lanthorn Fish, by which it is sometimes 

 called. 



But there is an interest attending it arising from its having 

 been confounded with the western examples of the Sail Fluke, 

 under the common name of Rhombus megastoma; from the 

 fact that both of them are alike characterized by a large gape, 

 which is indeed the chief particular that marks this section 

 of the family of flatfishes. But a glance at the figures of 

 each of these fishes will shew that in their relative proportions 

 ihcy differ much. When full grown the Sail Fluke reaches a 



