538 THE COMMON SOLE. 



Another species of Iihombiis has also heen recently 

 added to the Scandinavian fauna hy M. Malm, called the 

 11. solecBformis, Malm, hy whose account it is not very 

 rare in the Bohus Skiirgard. It is described hy him as 

 somewhat resembling the R. Megastoma, hut is, amongst 

 other characteristics, at once distinguished by fewer and 

 larger scales. 



The Common Sole {Tuixja, Sala, Sw. ; Ttmge, Dan.; 

 Solea vulgaris, Cuv.) was tolerably common in the Bohus 

 SkJirgard, and elsew^here on the western coasts of both 

 Sweden and Denmark ; as also on that of Norway up to 

 about Stadt, lat. (32°, beyond which Kroyer has been 

 unable to follow it. It is an inhabitant of the Baltic, but 

 does not seem to penetrate very deep into that sea. Its 

 usual length is from twelve to sixteen inches, and seldom 

 attains to more than twenty. Its food and manner of 

 living are similar to those of the Flounders. Moderately 

 deep water, with a sandy bottom, is its favourite resort 

 during the summer; hut, on the approach of winter, it 

 retires farther from the shore. It is said to thrive nearly 

 equally well in fresh as salt water, being often met with, 

 not only at the mouths of, but far up, rivers. According 

 to Ekstrom, it spawns in ]\Iay and June. Formerly it 

 seems to have been more numerous in the Scandinavian 

 seas than at present. Kroyer tells us that some forty 

 vears ago no fewer than sixteen hundred of these fish 

 were on one occasion captured at a single haul of the net 

 near to Hesseloen, in the Southern Cattegat. It is highly 

 valued for the table, where it always appears fried — 

 " a boiled sole," according to Ekstrom, " w^ould be as 

 great an anomaly as a roasted turbot." 



The Bimaculated Sucker {Tcu-fliickad Duhhel-sugare, 

 or the two-spotted double-sucker, Sw. ; Lepidogaster hima- 

 cnlatus, Flem.), which rarely attains to a length of three 

 inches, has not hitherto been identified in the Bohus 



