Rogue-Plaice; Diminutive Plaice. 43 



swarm in multitudes in the early spring till the beginning of 

 autumn. 



Among the Leighmen there is a flat-fish vernacularly known 

 as the " Rogue-Plaice," and which they consider a different 

 species from the ordinary plaice they catch. It runs from a 

 foot to 14 or 15 inches long, sometimes looks thick and plump, 

 at other times more emaciated; but, in whichever condition, 

 is extremely watery, and, as expressed, " drains away to 

 nothing." As a rule they are discarded as unfit for food. 

 In far back years they are said to have been got in the Leigh 

 Roads during early summer. Within more recent dates our 

 fishery officer (George Kirby) has captured them on the 

 Maplins towards the Swin, but only at odd intervals, and then 

 occasionally " a tidy few."* Others have come across single 

 examples in the neighbourhood of the Spile and " Off-the-Land " 

 i.e., more towards Sheppey. From descriptions given of the 

 general appearance of these fish their shape, spotting and 

 knobby head, they would seem to be only spent female plaice, 

 that have come into shallow water after spawning. 



With respect to the sizes of those diminutive plaice alluded 

 to above, the following gives the gist of observations carried on 

 during the greater part of one year, of material taken in the 

 shrimp trawl. On 1st January, one catch of 25 were from 1J 

 up to 6 inches in their extreme lengths. On the 10th, the 

 smallest were 1| to 4 inches in a sample of 19. Towards the 

 end of the same month, in six picked specimens the shortest 

 was 2f , the longest 3'6 inches, these being the apparent extremes 

 of a long series. In February some half-dozen were 2 to 2 

 inches, others over 6 to 9. In early March we found among 30 

 specimens one moiety 2 to 3, the other 4 to 6| inches. In the 

 middle of April, in 26 specimens, about one-half were under 2 

 inches, the remainder not exceeding 4 inches. There were 

 besides many others 5 and 6 inches long. In the beginning and 



* Kirby has since stated that in former years he used to take 20 to 30 daily to 

 Sheerness, caught in fishing at the Black-tail Spit and thereabouts. The fish " looked 

 handsome," but purchasers soon found their appearances were deceptive, which put 

 an end to their sale. 



