HISTORY OF THE FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 195 



GENUS II. PLATESSA, Cuv. 



Body rhomboidal, depressed; both eyes generally on the right side of the head, 

 one above the other; a row of teeth in each jaw, with others on the pharyngeal 

 bones; dorsal fin commencing over the upper eye, that fin and the anal extend- 

 ing nearly the whole length of the body ; but neither of them joined to the tail ; 

 branchiostegous rays six. 



Eyes on the Right Side of the Head. 



Platessa plana, Storer. 



The Flounder. 

 (Plate XXX. Fig. 2.) 



Pleuronectes planus, New York Flat-jish, Mitch., Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soe. of N. Y., i. p. 387. 

 Platessa plana, Flounder of Massachusetts, Storer, Report, p. 143. 



■" " New York Flat-jish, Dekat, Report, p. 295, pi. 48, fig. 154, and pi. 49, fig. 158. 



" " Atres, Bost. Journ. Nat. Hist., iv. p. 276. 



" " Storer, Mem. Amer. Acad., New Scries, n. p. 476. 



" " " Synopsis, p. 224. 



Color. The smaller and middling-sized specimens, when first taken from the 

 water, are of a greenish-brown tinge, more or less spotted and blotched with rusty 

 brown. The larger individuals are of a general rusty-brown color ; or a dark, 

 blackish brown, or a dull slate-color scarcely exhibiting any spots. The left side 

 is colorless. Pupils black, irides golden. The dorsal, anal, and caudal fins are 

 yellowish-brown ; the two former are generally blotched with darker brown. The 

 pectorals and ventrals are of the color of the right side of the fish. 



Description. The greatest depth of this species is less than half of its length 

 exclusive of the tail. The head is about two fifths the length of the fish includ- 

 ing the tail. The mouth is small, the lips are fleshy. A single row of compact, 

 prominent, incurved, trenchant teeth, slightly notched on the cutting edge, form a 

 continuous line from the angle to the centre of each jaw. On the upper jaw is 

 one tooth, on the lower jaw are two teeth, on the side of the jaw next the colored 

 side. The right half of the jaws, or the half next the colored side of the fish, eden- 

 tate. The eyes are large, oblong ; their longest diameter less than one fifth the 

 length of the head. The space between the eyes, which is covered with scales, 

 at its middle portion is equal in width to about one third the long diameter of 

 the eye. 



vol. viii. 33 



