294 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 
GENUS HIPPOGLOSSUS. Cuvier. 
Body elongated. Eyes and color on the right side, Jaws and pharynx armed with strong 
and sharp teeth. 
THE HALIBUT. 
HIppoGLossus VULGARIS, 
PLATE XLIX. FIG. 157. 
Pleuronectes hippoglossus. L1iNNEUS, p. 456. 
H. id., Halibut. Mircuttt, Lit. and Phil. Soc, Vol. 1, p. 386. 
Hippoglossus vulgaris. CuviER. 
The Halibut. StToRER, Massachusetts Report, p. 145. 
Characteristics. Very large. Uniform dark ashen grey on the upper side; white beneath. 
Caudal fin concave. Length one to eight feet. 
Description. Body elongated; breadth to the length as one to two and a half nearly; 
smooth, covered with minute oval scales. The lateral line arched over the pectorals. Length 
of the head to the total length as one to four. Eyes moderate, dextral. Nostrils double, 
slightly in advance of the eyes; the anterior tubular. Gape of the mouth large. Lower jaw 
longer than the upper, and both with large fleshy lips. Teeth in a double row in both jaws, 
robust, distant, acute ; the posterior range somewhat larger. Branchial rays seven. 
The dorsal fin commences above the eye, and ends near the caudal; its middle rays longest. 
Pectorals oblong, arising below the medial line of the body. Ventrals beneath the base of the 
pectorals ; very small, with its third ray longest. The first rays of the anal fin shortest, gra- 
dually increasing in length to the seventh or eighth ray; thence gradually diminishing and 
coterminal with the dorsal. Vent with a separate urinary passage behind. Caudal fin cres- 
cent-shaped. 
Color. Head, body and fins of the right side an ashen grey, more or less darker ; the left 
side white, immaculate. Pupils black ; irides golden. 
Length of head and body, 24:0. Breadth of body, 9°5. 
Fin stays, D. 100; P. 16); Vii63 Al 743. 17.2. 
The individual described above is small. They are usually of a more considerable size. I 
have seen them of the weight of two hundred pounds, and Dr. Storer informs us of one which 
reached the enormous weight of six hundred pounds. It is a savory fish, particularly the 
smaller individuals, and occasionally appears in unusually large numbers on the coast. Its 
capture on the shoals of Nantucket at one time afforded employment to eighty vessels of from 
sixty to eighty tons each. They are very voracious ; swimming near the ground, and devour- 
ing other Planide, as well as shells and crustacea. It occurs on both shores of the Atlantic, 
inhabiting the northern seas, and migrating south on the approach of spring, as far as the 
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