PLEURONECTES.] PISCES (OSSEI) MALACOPT. 463 



denticles finer and more numerous : dorsal commencing immediately in 

 advance of the upper eye, and extending very nearly to the caudal, at 

 the same time passing underneath the tail, where the rays become very 

 delicate ; greatest elevation of the fin near its retral extremity ; first ray 

 very much produced, nearly three times the length of those which 

 follow ; most of the rays divided at their tips ; some of the last in the 

 fin branched from the bottom : anal commencing in a line with the 

 posterior angle of the preopercle, answering to the dorsal, and terminat- 

 ing in the same manner beneath the tail ; greatest elevation correspond- 

 ing : caudal oblong, the extremity rounded : pectorals inserted behind 

 the posterior lobe of the opercle, a little below the middle ; the first ray 

 very short ; the next three or four longest ; the succeeding ones nearly 

 as long; pectoral on the eye-side rather larger than that on the side 

 opposite : ventrals immediately before the anal, and appearing like a 

 continuation of that fin, but not connected with it, as in the next species ; 

 vent situate between the two last pairs of rays : the rays of all the fins 

 covered with rough scales nearly to their tips : 



D. 87; A. 68; C. 16; P. (Left) 12, (Right) 11; V. 6. 



(Colours.) Above brown, or reddish brown, mottled and spotted with 

 black; a large round spot, more conspicuous than the others, in the 

 middle of the side towards the posterior part of the body ; fins spotted : 

 beneath, plain white. 



This species, which I believe to be the same as the P. punctatus of 

 Bloch, was confounded by that author with the P. Megastoma. More 

 recently, it has been confounded by several naturalists, including Cuvier, 

 Nilsson, Hanmer, and Fleming, with that next described. The elongated 

 first dorsal ray, and the ventrals, disjoined from the anal, will, however, 

 always serve to distinguish it. It is evidently to the present species that 

 Fleming's fish, procured in Zetland, belongs. The only other British 

 specimen I know of, is in the Museum of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society. This last, from which the above description was taken, was 

 obtained by Professor Henslow at Weymouth. The Top-Knot of Hanmer 

 belongs to the next species. 



151. P. hirtus, Mull. (Mullens Top-Knot.) Round- 

 ish oval : eye-side of the body rough ; the edges of the 

 scales denticulated: jaws equal: the first dorsal ray not 

 longer than the succeeding ones: ventrals and anal 

 united. 



P. hirtus, Mull. Zool. Dan. vol. in. p. 36. pi. 103. Smear-Dab, 

 Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. in. pi. 41. no. 106. (No description an- 

 nexed.) Top-Knot, Hanmer in Penn. Brit. Zool. (Edit. 1812.) 

 vol. in. p. 322. pi. 51. Whiff, Couch in Linn. Trans, vol. xiv. 

 p. 78. 



LENGTH. Seven inches nine lines. 



DESCRJPT. (Form.) In general appearance very similar to the last 

 species, but differing in the following particulars : profile without the 

 notch before the commencement of the dorsal fin : mouth rather smaller, 

 and more oblique; when closed, the maxillaries assuming nearly a 

 vertical position : jaws more nearly equal : eyes not so prominent, nor 

 so close together; the lower one rather more in advance with respect 

 to the upper, a tangent to the posterior part of the orbit of the former 



