528 THE COMMON PLAICE AND THE FLOUNDER. 



fish, Fabricius tells us, it is called by the inhabitants 

 Prest-Jlt/nder, or parson's flounder, which designation, lie 

 further informs us, " is not unfrequently applied to old 

 ladies who have little other to recommend them than their 

 fat and unwieldiness." The Common Plaice spawns in 

 spring. The smaller fish are esteemed for the table, both 

 on account of their taste and as being easy of digestion ; 

 they are said to be in best condition from the end of May 

 to the be2:innio» of July ; but the lar2:er ones are seldom 

 eaten until dried and salted. They are taken by both 

 lines and nets of various kinds on the coast of Jutland — 

 where they Avould seem to be more numerous and larger 

 than elsewhere — chiefly in the drag-net ; and " when one 

 thousand or one thousand one hundred are captured at 

 a single haul," Olavius observes, " it is looked on as 

 good fishing." 



In the more southern portion of the Baltic, near 

 Abekas in Scania, I should observe, tliey occasionally 

 capture a flounder, which the fishermen call Ilornnge, 

 literally bastard, as it is supposed by them to be a 

 hybrid between the P. vulgaris and the P. Flesifs. 

 Nilsson, however, considers it a local variety of the 

 former, and has therefore named it the Fjdll-taggig Rod- 

 spdifa, or the spiny-scaled plaice {varietas Baltica). 



The Flovmder [Skrubb-Skadda, Sw. ; Skruhhe, Dan. ; 

 P. Flesus, Linn.) was also common both in our Skargard 

 and on the westei'u coast, as high up, according to Nilsson, 

 as the "North Cape ; but Kroyer says he is unable to follow 

 it further than Drontheim. It is also common in the 

 Baltic, where its range seems to bo much more extended 

 than that of the common plaice, it being by all accounts 

 an inhabitant of the Gulf of Bothnia. With us its 

 ordinary length was from eight to twelve inches, but it 

 attains to fifteen inches and upwards. The spawning 

 season with this fish is in the spring. 



