THE FLAT-FISH FAMILY 229 



numerous than the females, which is the opposite of the usual 

 case among flat-fishes: there are 62 females to 100 males. 

 In size the female is larger, as usual among flat-fishes, the 

 proportion being 126 to 100. 



Time and Place of Spawning. On the east coast of Scot- 

 land, according to Dr. Fulton, the spawning period extends from 

 February to the beginning of June, but it is certain that March 

 and April are the principal months. On the west coast of 

 Ireland ripe specimens were found in March, and spent fish in 

 May and June. At Plymouth they spawn principally in 

 February, March, and April, in the sea. They spawn there 

 regularly every year in the aquarium, from the beginning of 

 March to the beginning of May. 



Ripe males are occasionally found among specimens taken at 

 the commencement of the spawning season in estuaries, such as 

 that of the Tamar, called the Hamoaze, but ripe females never. 

 In seeking the sea the flounders are limited in their migration, 

 not by a particular kind of ground or a particular distance from 

 shore, but by the saltness of the water. They require to shed 

 their spawn in sea-water, where it will float, although in the 

 Baltic they spawn in water which is considerably less salt than 

 that of the North Sea or English Channel. At Plymouth I have 

 found ripe flounders in great abundance, in the spawning 

 season, on the trawling grounds inside the Eddystone, from 

 about 3 or 4 miles off the land outwards. The depths 

 here are from 15 to 30 fathoms. No flounders are taken on 

 this ground from the end of May to the end of January. 

 Outside the 30 fathom line beyond the Eddystone I have fre- 

 quently studied the contents of the trawl in March and April, 

 but seen no flounders. Nor have I seen them at the same 

 season of the year on what are called the Mount's Bay grounds, to 

 the south of the Wolf Rock, where the depth is about 40 fathoms. 

 In the Firth of Forth I have taken ripe flounders in Aberlady Bay 

 and it was the only species which I obtained in the spawning con- 

 dition so far up the Firth. The records of Professor Mclntosh's 

 trawling observations in the Report of the Commission of 

 1885 show that during the spawning period of the fish, flounders 

 were taken at depths up to 30 fathoms along the east coast of 

 Scotland, but not beyond that depth ; they were most abundant 

 in the hauls made at 4^ to ic4 fathoms in St. Andrews Bay. On 



