297 



PLAISE. 



Pleuronectes Platessa. P. corpore subfusco glabro maculis rotm- 



disfuhis, capite tuber culis sex. 

 Smooth brownish Flounder, with round fulvous spots, and 



six tubercles on the head. 

 Pleuronectes Platessa. P. oculis dextm, corpore glabro, tuber- 



culis sex capitis. Lin. Syst. Nat. p. 456. 

 The Plaise. Perm. brit. zoo/. 3. Will, ichth. p. 95. Block, t. 



42. 



THIS species is, in general, easily distinguished 

 at first sight from others of the genus by its shape 

 and colours, being very broad and flat, and of a 

 fine palish brown above, marked both on the body 

 and fins by pretty numerous, but rather distant, 

 round, and moderately large, orange-coloured spots: 

 the under side is white : behind the left eye is a 

 row of six. tubercles, reaching as far as the com- 

 mencement of the lateral line : the mouth is rather 

 small, the lower jaw longer than the upper, and 

 both furnished with a row of small, and rather 

 blunt teeth. 



The Plaise is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, 

 Baltic, and Northern seas, and is found in consider- 

 able plenty about our own coasts. Mr. Pennant 

 observes that it is sometimes taken of the weight of 

 fifteen pounds, but its more general weight is far 

 short of this ; one of eight or nine pounds being 

 reckoned a large fish : the best are said to be taken 

 off Rye on the coast of Sussex, and about the 

 Dutch coasts : they spawn in the beginning of 

 May : their general food consists of small fishes* 



