EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEENSLANB.—OGILBY. 135 



of clieap nutritions and dainty food. This desirable consummation, however, 

 can not be reached without the hearty and honest co-operation of both providers 

 and consumers. 



All the members of this Order are ground-fishes, living and feeding at the 

 bottom, and but i-arely invading the realms of the surface fishes.® 



The ova of all the marine heterosomes are pelagic, and the symmetrical 

 young are chietiy captured by the tow-net in the open sea. 



Adult flat-fishes progress by means of an undulating movement of the 

 whole body, which is notably distinct from the vibratory pectoral undulations 

 of the skates and sting-rays. 



All the species are carnivorous, subsisting on smaller fishes, crustaceans, 

 moUusks, sand-worms, and in fact on every living creature which they can 

 master.^ Nor are some of them averse to feeding upon offal, even the lordly 

 turbot if not preferring at least not disdaining a putricl bait. 



Regan divides the Heterosomata into two suborders, the monotypic 

 Psettodeoidea, represented by the "Queensland halibut," and the Pleuronectoidea, 

 comprising all the remaining flat-fishes. He further separates the latter in two 

 divisions, the Pleuroncctiformes, with two families and six subfamilies, and the 

 Soleiformes with two families. The following key to such of the higher groups 

 as are found in our waters should be useful to Queensland students. 



a^. Psettodeoidea ; — Dorsal fin not extending forward on tlie liead, tiie anterior rays spinous' ; 

 ventral fins with one spinous and 5 soft rays ; palatine teeth present; nostrils subsym- 

 metrical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Psettodeid;e. 



a-. Pleuronectoidea : — Doi-sal fin extending forward on the head, none of the rays spinous ; 

 ventral fins with 6 or less soft rays ; no palatine teeth. 

 6^. Lower jaw prominent ; preopercvdar border free ; nostrils asymmetrical {Pleuronecti- 

 formes). 

 c^. Eyes on the left side . . . . . . . . . . . . (Flounders) Bothid^. 



d^. Ventrals with a short base, inserted behind the clavicular arch {Paralichthyince). 

 d'^. Ventral fin of eyed side with a long base extending forward in advance of the 

 clavicular arch {Platophryince). 

 h-. Lower jaw not prominent ; preopercular border adnate ; nostrils sjonmetrical (Soleiformes). 

 e^. Eyes on the right side . . . . . . . . . . . . (Soles) Soleid^. 



e^. Eyes on the left side . . . . . . . . (Tongue Soles) CYNOGiiOSSiD.E. 



Regan defines the Soleiformes as follows : — 



Division 2.— SOLEIFORMES. 



"Mouth small, terminal, subterminal, or inferior, the lower jaw never 

 prominent ; jaws of the blind side toothed, strongly curved, the convexity of the 



* The author, when floating in a Rob Roy canoe over a depth of about six feet with a 

 calm sea, on the north coast of Ireland, once saw a plaice (Pleuronectes platessa), until then 

 unobserved, dart from its sand-bed and seize a " cudden" (local name for the fry of the coal- 

 fish — Pollachius virens) swimming at the surface, retiring then to the bottom to consume its 

 prey at leisure. 



® I have seen a large sea-mouse (Aphrodite aculcata) taken from the stomach of a brill 

 (Bothus l(£vis), though one would imagine that a creature, the hairs of which come off so easUy 

 and have such an unpleasant habit of attaching themselves to whatever touches them, would 

 be immune. 



