192 HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



fish, and is considered by those best acquainted with it, when fresh, quite a delicacy, 

 and, when salted, preferable to the cod. A large quantity of oil is procured from its 

 liver, which is sometimes preserved by the fishermen for external application to burns. 

 This species grows to the weight of thirty pounds. Captain Atwood informs me 

 that he has never known an individual to be taken on the Cape Cod shore of Massa- 

 chusetts Bay. 



Massachusetts, Lesueur, Storer. 



FAMILY XIX. PLANIDvE. 



Body flat, compressed vertically. Upper surface dusky, and of various colors ; be- 

 neath white. Dorsal single, extending the whole length of the back. Both eyes 

 placed on the same side of the head. No air-bladder. Branchial rays six. 



GENUS I. HIPPOGLOSSTJS, Cuv. 



Eyes and colored surface on the right side. The fins are similar to those of the 

 species of the genus Platessa ; the jaws and the pharynx are armed with teeth that are 

 sharper and stronger, and the form of the body is more elongated. 



HlPPOGLOSSUS VULGARIS, CuV. 



The Halibut 



(Plate XXX. Fig. 1.) 



Phuronectes hippoglossus, Lin., Syst. Nat., p. 456. 



" " Hohjbut, Blooh, ii. p. 44, pi. 47. 



" " Fabkicius, Fauna Groenlandica, p. 161. 



" " Halibut, Shaw, Gen. Zoul., iv. p. 295. 



" " " Pennant, Brit. Zool., in. p. 302. 



" " Halibut, Mitch., Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc. of N. Y., i. p. 386. 



Hippoglossus vulgaris, Halibut, Jenyns, Brit. Vert., p. 460. 



" " Griffith's Cuv., s. p. 494. 



" " Yarrell, Brit. Fish., 1st edit., II. p. 230; 2d edit., II. p. 321. 



" " Storer, Report, p. 145. 



" " Dekat, Report, p. 294, pi. 49, fig. 157. 



" " Storer, Mem. Amer. Acad., New Series, n. p. 475. 



" " " Synopsis, p. 223. 



Color. The entire right side of this species of an almost uniform dark-brown ; the 

 left side of a pure white. Very rarely, an individual is caught having the left side also 

 brown. 



