148 FISHES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



The Ventrals are very small, less than an inch high, of a 

 light color, Avith darker spots; rays, deeply cleft. 



The Anal fin arises just hack of the ventrals, and terminates 

 on a plane with the dorsal ; similar in its form and color to the 

 dorsal. 



The Caudal fin is large and fleshy ; the depth of the fleshy 

 portion of the tail at the termination of the dorsal fin, one inch 

 and a half ; length of the caudal rays, two and a half inches ; 

 convex at the extremity ; rounded when expanded. 



The fin rays are as follows : D. 89 ; P. 12 ; V. 6 ; A. 68 ; 

 C. 16. 



The fish I have just descrihed. is undoubtedly the " Pleu- 

 ronectes aquosus,^^ of Mitchell. No ichthyologist could mis- 

 take it for the ^'Rhombus maxirmis/^ " Turbot.^'' The " Tur- 

 bot" is nearly round, and its left side is nearly covered with 

 numerous tubercles. Like the turbot it is said to be often 

 taken with the trawl-net, and like that species it is a Rhombus. 

 In a paper upon our fishes published in the first volume of 

 the " Boston Journal of Natural History/^ I inadvertently 

 remarked that, among other peculiarities, it differed from 

 the Turbot, by the eyes of that species being on the right 

 side. 



In several points, this bears no slight resemblance to the 

 " Rhombus vulgaris,'^ " Brill or Pearl,^' but in the latter fish, 

 the imder jaw is the longer, and only a few of the first rays of 

 the dorsal, extend beyond the connecting membrane. 



AcHiRUS. Lacepede. 



Generic characters. Both eyes and color on the right side ; 

 the mouth distorted on the side opposite the eyes ; small teeth 

 in both jaws, but confined to the under side only, none on the 

 same side as the eyes ; form of the body oblong ; dorsal and 

 anal fins extend to the tail. No pectoral fins. 



