528 THE COMMON PLAICE AND THE PLOT \ HI K. 



fish, Fabricius tells us, it is called by the inhabitants 

 Prest-Jli/iuli'r, or parson's flounder, which designation, lie 

 further informs us, " is not unfrequently applied to old 

 ladies who have little other to recommend them than their 

 fat and unwieldiness." The Common Plaice spawns in 

 spring. The smaller fish are esteemed for the table, both 

 on account of their taste and as being easy of digestion ; 

 they are said to be in best condition from the end of May 

 to the beginning of July ; but the larger ones are seldom 

 eaten until dried and salted. They arc taken by both 

 lines and nets of various kinds on the coast of Jutland 

 where they would seem to be more numerous and larger 

 than elsewhere chiefly in the drag-net ; and " when one 

 thousand or one thousand one hundred are captured at 

 a single haul," Olavius observes, " it is looked on as 

 good fishing." 



In the more, southern portion of the Baltic, near 

 Abekus in Scania, I should observe, they occasionally 

 capture a flounder, which the fishermen call Jlornnye, 

 literally bastard, as it is supposed by them to be a 

 hybrid between the P. rn/f/m-ift and the P. Flesi/s. 

 Nilsson, however, considers it a local variety of t In- 

 former, and has therefore named it the fjStt-iaggig 1H><1- 

 xjti'if/o, or the spiny-scaled plaice (curiclan Jnilti: 



The Flounder (Skrubb-SkiuMn, S\v. ; ShmU,,-. Dan.; 

 P. Flesns, Linn.) was also common both in our Skiirg;ird 

 and on the western coast, as high up, according to Nilsson, 

 as the North Cape ; but K rover says be is unable to follow 

 it further than Drontheim. It is also common in the 

 Baltic, where its ran^e seems to lie much more extended 

 than that of the common plaice, it liein- by all accounts 

 an inhabitant of the (Julf of Bothnia. With u> its 

 ordinary length \\as from ei-lit to twelve inches, but it 

 attains to fifteen inches and ii]>\\anU. The >p;i\\ning 

 season with this tish is in the spring. 



