THE LEMON DAB. 197 



Pennant. About an inch behind the bases of pectoral fin on upper side, 

 but neai'er the D. fin than its origin, a lemon-formed mark :f of an inch in 

 length, and in colour dull yellow, appears in both specimens, whence pro- 

 bably the name. Orange stripe edging the operculum not so conspicuous 

 as in last specimen, being clouded a little with brown. The body of this 

 fish is covered with a thick slime, Avhence Pennant remarks its name of 

 Smear dab originated. 



Marcli mth, 1S3G. I procured a specimen in Belfast market. Its 

 length is 10 inches ; D. 85 ; P. 9 ; V. o ; A. 74 ; C. 19 in all. 



Colour as in first specimen. 



It is well described generally by Jenyns. Its stomach contained a 

 Nereis 6 inches long. 



April \~th, 1837. I obtained a specimen in Belfast market which was 

 brought from Killough. It is 16^ inches long. 



D. 95; A. 78; P. 10 (on both sides 1st ray short); V. o (the 4th 

 ray on upper fin branching from the base) ; C. 20 in all (an accessory ray 

 is interposed between two of the ordinary long rays); P. fins pretty 

 equal in size. 



Lateral line sloping equally on both sides. 



Mucous secretion prevailing much over the fish. 



Colour. Entire upper side including head and fins brown of every 

 shade, in fact the fish looks like a painter's pallet on which every possible 

 shade of brown was dashed at random. A stripe of orange on posterior 

 edge of operculum only below P. fin, a line of pale reddish-white marks 

 the remaining edge of operculum : lips brownish red. No lemon-formed 

 mark, as in other specimens I examined (see notes) ; under side wholly 

 pure white. 



On dissection it proved a female exhibiting a vast number of ova 

 about half the size of ordinary clover seed. The stomach was filled 

 with specimens of Nereis, some 6 inches long, nothing whatever else 

 appeared. 



The Long Rough Dab, ok Sandnecker, Platessa Limancloides, Jenyns. 



A specimen of this rare fish was obtained by ]\Ir. W. Todhunter, ofi" 

 Cape Clear, in the winter of 1848. The specimen is now in the Dublin 

 University Museum. 



The Pole, Craig Fluke— called White Sole in Ireland — 

 Platessa Pola* Cuv., 



Is taken on the North-East, East, and South-West coasts. 



Mr. Yarrell, in his Br. Fish., vol. ii. p. 316, published in 1841, after 

 mentioning two specimens of this fish, adds, " these are the only examples 

 of this fish taken in our seas that I am acquainted with. He was not, 

 however, aware that I had noticed the sp. in the Zool. Proc. 1837, and 

 had given the following detailed descriptive account in the Annals for 

 Sept., 1838 :— 



"Platessa Sola, Cuv., Pole. — On April 26, 1837, I procured in Belfast 

 market six specimens of this lish, which had been taken aloiis with turbol, &c., 

 at Ardglass, on the coast of Down. Such is the difference in the number of rays 



* Not the P. Pola of Cuv., according to a writer in Weigmann's Archiv., who 

 quotes Yarr., Jenyns, Thompson's P. Pola as Pleuronectes cynoglossus, Linn. : 

 mine is the same as Yarr. and Jenyns's fish, called 7'. Pola. 



