CHAPTER XXIX. 



FLUKE, PLAICE, TURBOT, &C. 



THESE flat friends of ours are to the scientific sportsman 

 "stale and unprofitable" as regards their game qualities, but 

 make about as good a dish as the angler could wish, after a 

 few hours' exercise with squid and line, or rod and reel, on the 

 ocean's breezy shore. This class of fish belong to the univer- 

 sal flounder family, and to the untutored eye appear precisely 

 the same, except being of larger size. 



The fish called in some parts of the country the Plaice, is taken 

 mostly along the white shelving shores of the ocean, from Maine 

 to Florida. The species known by the same name to the in- 

 habitants along the coast near Shrewsbury, N. J., is, according 

 to Dr. De Kay, related to the general tribe of Flounder, and is 

 called the Oblong Flounder Platessa Oblonga. 



Characteristics. " Oblong, smooth, nearly uniform brown ; 

 occasionally with spots. Caudal fin angulated. Length fifteen 

 to twenty inches. 



" Color, dark olive-green, with somewhat lighter spots on the 

 head and body ; these spots are occasionally distinct, but oftener 

 with no vestige of them. Dorsal, anal, and caudal, dusky, 

 tinged with sanguineous. The pectoral, anal, and ventral of the 

 under side reddish ; above, dark olive, with dusky bars. Bron- 

 chial membrane bright olive. The lower parts white, with a 

 faint blush of pink. Interior of the mouth rosaceous. Pupils 

 black ; irides yellow." 



The Ichthyological description is here given, in order to set 

 many of our friends aright, and enable them to call the objects 

 of their pleasure by their right names. 



It is during the summer season, when Basse and Blue Fish 

 H 



