LONG ROUGH DAB. 225 



of Forth in May, June, and July. Soon afterwards I 

 learned by a letter from George T. Fox, Esq. of Durham, 

 that a specimen of PL limanddides of Bloch had been taken 

 some years before on the coast of Sunderland, and was still 

 preserved in the possession of Thomas Wilkinson, Esq. of 

 Bishop Wearmouth. The first recorded notice of this fish 

 as British, that I am aware of, is that by Dr. Parnell, 

 in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, already quot- 

 ed, where, by an error of the press, the fish is called PL 

 limandanus. 



Bloch received his specimen from Hamburgh, and states 

 that this fish is caught by the hook in the vicinity of Heli- 

 goland. He says it feeds on young crabs and young lob- 

 sters, and that its flesh is white and good. 



The length of the head compared to the whole length 

 of the fish is as one to five ; the breadth of the body, 

 not including the dorsal or anal fins, is equal to one-third 

 of the whole length ; with the dorsal and anal fins it is 

 equal to half the distance from the point of the nose to 

 the end of the fleshy portion of the tail : the form of the 

 body is an elongated oval, almost equally pointed at both 

 ends ; the parts of the mouth capable of some protrusion ; 

 teeth in a single row in each jaw, separate, conical, and 

 curving slightly inwards : eyes rather large ; the upper one 

 a little before the line of the other ; the orbits separated 

 by a bony ridge : pectoral and ventral fins small ; the former 

 only half the length of the head : dorsal and anal fins ex- 

 tending nearly to the tail ; both fins ending on the same 

 plane : the tail slightly rounded. 



The cheeks, operculum, and body, covered with harsh, 

 ciliated scales, the surface exceedingly rough to the touch ; 

 a row of ciliated scales along each ray of the dorsal and anal 

 fins ; the lateral line straight, or very slightly inclining up- 



