FISHES. 279 



suddenlj' for fi short distance, and can work itself rapidly into the sand, where it lies 

 concealed, with only its eyes being apparent." Its food consists, to a large extent, of 

 shell-fish, but it is limited by the small size of the mouth. The breeding season is 

 " about February or March." The eggs are moderately numerous, 144,600 having been 

 found in a fish weighing four pounds fifteen ounces. In the words of Dr. Day, "the 

 opinion was formerly entertained that the plaice is descended from a shrimp, and Di-. 

 Deslandes investigated the subject. He first placed some of the shrimiDS in a vessel 

 of salt water, and after twelve or thirteen days he discovered eight or nine young 

 plaice. The next year he placed some of these fish in two different salt-water recep- 

 tacles, and to one lot he added a few of the shrimps, not so to the other. Both lots 

 spawned, but it was only where the shrimps were that any young were produced. On 

 examining the shrimps, he discovered the ova attached to the under surface of these 

 crustaceans, and he felt persuaded that their maternal care is a necessity for bringing 

 forth the fry." Such was the way our forefathers reasoned and experimented ! 



The plaice is esteemed as a table fish, and large numbers are brought to the mar- 

 kets, upwards of three millions being annually consumed in London. Its quality is 

 said to depend upon " the nature of the ground on which it is captured : when from 

 sand, it is firm and sweet ; if from muddy, the reverse." They are chiefly taken by 

 " lines or beam trawls." 



Several near relatives of the plaice inhabit American waters, the nearest on the 

 Atlantic coast being the Pleuronectes glaher, which is called fool-fish at Salem, 

 because they are easily decoyed and bite even at a rag, and Christmas-fish, for the 

 reason that it approaches the harbors about the time indicated. 



Very nearly related' to the Pleuronectids, but apparently of a different family — 

 the SoLEiD^ — are the sole and its many relations. They are more or less elongated, 

 compressed, elliptical fishes, with a rounded protuberant snout, the upper eye further 

 forward than the lower ; the mouth in nearly a horizontal curve, and the opercular bones 

 invested and concealed by the thick, skin. The species are numerous, and most are of 

 small size ; in the intertropical seas are the homes of a large proportion, but some are 

 found in the northern as well as southern temperate waters, and mostly belong to dif- 

 ferent genera from the tropical forms. 



The famous sole of England is a fish of a long elliptical form, with moderate- 

 sized pectoral fins developed upon both sides, no visible nostrils upon the blind side, 

 and of a grayish or brownish color, with the right pectoral marked by a black blotch 

 at its distal and upper half. It reaches a goodly size, and sometimes becomes quite 

 large. The largest of which we have record was twenty-six inches long, and weighed 

 nine pounds ; another weighed seven and a half pounds ; and still another two feet 

 long weighed- six and a half pounds. The average, of course, is much less, and some- 

 where near a pound. 



The habitat of the sole is nearly the same as the turbot, being found in and from 

 the Mediterranean to the Scandinavian shores. According to Dr. Day, it " appears to 

 prefer sandy or gravelly shores," but is " rather uncertain in its migrations, for, al- 

 though mostly appearing at certain spots almost at a given time, and usually decreas- 

 ing in numbers by degrees, in other seasons they disappear at once, as suddenly as 

 they arrived." Along the British sea coast " they retire to the deep as frosts set in, revis- 

 iting the shallows about May, if the weather is warm, their migrations being 

 influenced by temperature." The food of the sole is, to a considerable extent, 

 molluscous, but it is also said to eat the eggs and fry of other fishes and sea-urchins. 



