REPORT ON THE DEEP-SEA FISHES. 161 



800 fathoms. Neither does this family ofTer a striking instance of bathybial organisa- 

 tion, for although the majority of the species are distinct from the surface forms, their 

 distinctive characters are such as may be also observed among the latter. The number 

 of Flat-fishes of which we have certain indications of their living or occurring beyond 100 

 fathoms, is only nineteen ; and four of them are identical with species which have been 

 long known as littoral inhabitants ; one of them descends to 100, the second to 220, a 

 third to 447, and the fourth {Pleuronectes cynoglossus) to 732 fathoms, the furthest limit 

 of the vertical distribution of the Pleuronectoid type. The other fifteen species are 

 either generically or specifically distinct from surface forms, ten having been found 

 between 100 and 200 fathoms, two between 200 and 300 fathoms, and three between 

 300 and 400 fathoms. 



Hippoglossus, Cuv. 



Hippoglossics pinguis, Fabr. 



Hippoglossus pinguis, Collett, Norges Fisk, p. 135. 



Platysomatichthys hippoglossoides (Walb.),Goode and Bean, Bull. Ess. Inst., vol. xi. p. 7, 1879. 



„ „ Collett, Norsk. Nordh. Exped. Fisk., p. U2. 



Hippoglossus groenlandicus, Giintli., Fish., vol. iv. p. 404. 



An Arctic species, extending southwards to the deep water off the coast of Massa- 

 chusetts, in the Western Atlantic ; found in a single young example by the North 

 Atlantic Expedition, south-west of Bear Island, in 447 fathoms, and occasionally obtained 

 from deep water on the coast of Norway. 



Hippoglossoides, Gottsche. 

 Hippoglossoides platessoides (Fabr.). 



Hippoglossoides platessoides, CoUett, Norsk. Nordh. E.\ped. Fisk., p. 145. 

 „ „ Goode, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. iii. p. 471. 



An inhabitant of the northern seas, from the coast of Scandinavia to that of North 

 America, southwards to New England, and living in shallow water in the vicinity of 

 land. Collett reports its occurrence at depths of from 120 to 220 fathoms south of 

 Spitzbergen and Bear Island. Goode .states that it is not unusual in deep water off 

 Southern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. 



(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. — PAET LVII. — 1887.) ^^^ 21 



