204 WAITE 
This is the commonest and best-known of the New Zealand 
flounders, occurring all round the coasts, in addition to being 
obtained in shallow water it was taken at a depth of 60 fathoms. 
It was not ineluded in the catches made at the Chatham Islands. 
Though commonly called Sand Flounder or Flounder simply, 
such names as Tinplate and Threecorner, applied by fishermen, 
indicate how the characteristic shape of the species is utilised as 
a ready means of identification. 
RHOMBOSOLEA TAPIRINA Giinther. 
GREENBACK FLOUNDER. 
Plate XXXVI. 
Rhombosolea tapirina Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. iv., 1862, 
p. 459. Hutton T.N.Z.I. vi., 1874, p. 106 (not 1b. v., 1878, 
p. 268). 
B. vi.; D. 67; A. 50; V. 6; P. dex. 12, sin. 11; C. 14 + 4; 
L. lat. 91; L. tr. 25 + 34. 
Length of head 3.4, height of body 1.7, length of caudal 4.8 
in the length. Lower eye very slightly in advance of the upper, 
4.5 in the head, interorbital space very narrow, not half the 
vertical diameter of the eye; snout one-half longer than the eye 
produced into a fleshy process which overhangs the mouth: 
mouth small, only slightly more developed on the blind side. 
The anterior profiles of head and body are nearly straight, but 
the lower one is broken by the head, which depends below the 
profile. 
Teeth.—Confined to the blind side; they are small and in 
several rows. 
Fins—The dorsal fin commences at the base of the rostral 
process, that is, nearly an eye diameter from the tip, and its 
three anterior rays are slightly split, the remainder being simple; 
the longest ones are 2.4 in the head: the ventral commences below 
the posterior third of the lower eye, and is continuous with the 
anal, which terminates evenly with the dorsal; the left pectoral 
is inserted exactly opposite to the right one but is a little shorter: 
the caudal is rounded and the depth of the peduncle is 1.9 in the 
leneth of the fin. 
Colowrs.—Body and fins green above with black blotches, 
the anterior dorsal and anal rays lighter; wholly white below. 
Length.—280 mm. 
