DEVELOPMENT AND LIFE-HISTORIES OF TELEOSTEAN FISHES. 847 
When the turbot reaches a total length of 21 mm., and when the left side has assumed 
the characteristic mottling of the adult, the spines above mentioned have disappeared 
from both sides, and the right shows minute black pigment-specks. The right eye is 
now on the left side, and the dorsal fin has advanced in front of it. The pectorals have 
considerably diminished, but the ventrals retain their proportional size. Specimens 
of these dimensions appear to be nearly a year old, and such are frequently found 
swimming at the margin of the sea. 
Our knowledge of the development of this species is meagre and very unsatisfactory. 
Thus BucKLAND says that the turbot spawns in early summer, PARNELL states in spring, 
and the young are seen in pools and on the surface in June and July. It is asserted in 
Day’s recent work* that “the young turbot would appear to swim on its edge fora 
longer period than the generality of our flat fishes;” and it is added that a specimen an 
inch and a half in length (August) may be taken to be two months old. Day cites Mr 
Duyn to the effect that they are hatched in June or July. “ For the first month they are 
quite black, and swim on edge like a ‘John Doree.’ Then their skin commences to mottle 
with white and brown, and their right eye begins to pass over to the left side of the 
head. Next they become white underneath, and of a light leaden colour on the upper 
surface, and during the period they remain of this shade on the back, which is until they 
have passed two months of age, they swim on the surface of the sea.” Some of the 
turbot of the east coast (Scotland) at any rate spawn in July. A female on the 10th of 
that month, as already indicated, contained many ripe ova, which were of comparatively 
small size and floated buoyantly in sea-water.t Unfortunately no male could be 
procured on the occasion in question; but many ova of precisely the same size and 
appearance were obtained on this ground in the tow-net and hatched, the larval 
fishes resembling in all the usual points those of other Pleuronectidze. They are very 
small larval fishes on emerging, and experience has shown that they could scarcely have 
the size and appearance mentioned by Day in two months. 
So far as present knowledge carries us, the young turbot of the season, hitherto 
procured at St Andrews, measure about 11 mm.{ at the end of August. Others, again, 
captured in the estuary of the Eden on the 25th July, had reached 23 mm.; and one, 
from the surface, on the 20th August, 29 mm., some blackish pigment still remaining on 
the right side. In April, again, specimens about 6 inches in length occasionally occur in 
the salmon stake-nets. If these stages refer to a year’s growth, the latter would seem 
to be slow, yet only very great irregularity in regard to the spawning period would 
explain such differences. 
Rhombus laevis (Brill).—No ripe brill has hitherto been seen at St Andrews, and none 
occurred during the trawling expeditions in 1884, Rarrax LE considers that a pelagic ovum, 
with a large oil-globule, which he procured in February and March in the Bay of Naples, 
pertains to this species, and he is probably right. A similar ovum with a pale oil-globule 
* British Fishes. 
+ Report of H.M. Trawling Commissioners, 1884, p. 263. t Total length. 
