240 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [16] 



ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF HirPOGLOSSOIDES. 



a. Teeth small, unequal, the anterior largest ; gill-rakers short, X-f-10 in number; max- 

 illary 2$- in head ; eye 5£ in head ; interorbital space with an obtuse, prominent 

 ridge, with usually about sis series of scales ; head, 3| ; depth, 2£ ; D. 88 (80 to 

 93) ; A. 70 (64 to 75) ; Lat. 1. 90 ; vertebra; 13-f-32=45 ; color nearly plain brown. 



Platessoides, 6. 



aa. Teeth small, subequal ; gill-rakers slender, X+16 ; maxillary 2£ in head; eye 

 large, 4 in head ; interorbital space a narrow, knife-like ridge with usually a single 

 series of scales; head, 3£ ; depth, 2+ ; D. 80 (77 to 84) ; A. 61 (59 to 64) ; Lat. 1. 100 ; 

 color brown, sometimes mottled with darker Elassodon, 7. 



6. HIFPOGLOSSOIDES PLATESSOIDES. 



(The Sani> Dab.) 



[Plate IV.] 



Pleuronectes linguatula Miiller, Zool. Dan. Prod.rornus, 45, 1776 (not of Linnajus). 

 Pleuronectes platessoides Fabricius, Fauna Groenlandica, 1780, 164 (Greenland), and of 



numerous copyists. 

 Vitharus platessoides Reinhardt, Kongl. Dausk. Vid. Selsk, 116, 1838. 

 Drepanopsetta platessoides Gill, Cat. Fish. East Coast N. Am., 1861, 50 (name only). 

 Hippoglossoides platessoides Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1H64 ; p. 217. Collet!, 



Norske Nord-Havs. Exped., 1880, 144 (Norway to Spitzbergen). Goode, Proc. 



U. S. Nat. Mus., 1880, 471. Jordan and Gilbert, Syn. Fish. N. A., 1882, 826. 



Stearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1883, 125 (Labrador). Goode, Nat. Hist. 



Aquatic Anim., 1S84, 197, pi. 55 (Wood's Holl and northward), and of recent 



American writers generally. 

 rieuronectes limandoides Bloch, Ansl. Fische, iii., 24 tab. 186, 1787 (Europe), and of 



various copyists. 

 Hippoglossoides limandoides Ciinther, Cat. Fish., iv, 405, 1862. Day, Fishes Great 



Britain and Ireland, vol. ii, p. 9, pi. xcv. 

 Hippoglossoides limanda Gottsche, Wiegm. Archiv, 1835, 168 (not PL limanda L.). 

 Pleuronectes limanclanus Parnell, Edinburgh New Phil. Journ., 1835, 210. 

 Pi 'ates sa dentata Storer, Fish. Mass., 143, 1839. (, Boston and Provincetown ; not Pi. 



dcntatus Linnaeus.) DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, Fish, p. 298, 1842. Storer, Syn. 



Fish. N. A., 1846, p. 476. 

 JPppoglossoides dentatus Giinther, Cat. Fish. , iv., 406, 1862. Giiuther, Voy. Challenger, 



Fishes, 1880, 3. (Station 49, south of Halifax.) 

 Pomatopsetta dentata Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1864, p. 217. 



Habitat — North Atlantic, south to Cape Cod, and the coasts of Eng- 

 land and Scandinavia. 



The identity of the American and European representatives of this 

 species (platessoides and limandoides) is now conceded by all writers. A 

 little difference is recognized between Arctic and subarctic examples, the 

 former having a somewhat greater number of fin-rays. 



Thus, Greenland specimens, according to Collett, have D. 88, A. 69, 

 specimens from Finmark have D. 92, A. 72; these representing the var. 

 platessoides. Specimens from England (var. limandoides) have D. 80, 

 A. 66, while those from intermediate localities present in general fin for- 

 mulae likewise intermediate, showing that no sharp division is possible. 



This is a rather common food-fish of the deeper waters northward, 

 on both sides of the ocean. 



