46 NEW SOUTH WALES 
The Beardie, or Ling. 
(Plate XXIII, fig. 2.) 
Loretta mararnata, Macleay (Plate XVII, fig. 2) belongs to a genus 
which has a separate caudal fin, teeth in the upper jaw in a bad and anouter 
series of larger ones; chin, with a barbel. There are four species known in 
Australia, Our Port Jackson species is from 14 to 20 inches long, of a 
uniform brownish colour with the margins of all the fins white. Of the 
esculent qualities of the species nothing is known, but those in Victoria 
and Tasmania are valued by some. The flesh is always very soft and 
watery. There are excellent figures of the Victorian species in McCoy’s 
Prodromus of {the Zoology of Victoria, Part II, plates 19 and 20,. 
caught with a line off the rocks ; the fishermen state that the spawning 
time in Victoria is April. 
Passing over the families OpHIDIIDZ and Macruripa, the second 
division of the Anacanthini demandsa more lengthened notice. It con- 
sists of one family— 
PLEURONECTIDZ. 
These fishes are called “ Flat Fishes,” including soles, flounders, plaice, 
turbot, &e. They have no air-bladder, and are so compressed that 
they move on one side of the body. The lower side, which on different 
genera is sometimes the left and sometimes the right, is white, the upper 
side is variously and sometimes brilliantly coloured, and both eyes are 
on the upper side, an arrangement which does not take place, until the 
young fishes have attained some size and have been swimming in the ocean 
like ordinary fishes. The fins which run all around the flat fish are the 
dorsal and anal,and the name Plewronectide (Greek pleuron side, nektes 
swimmer) refers to this peculiarity. In Psettodes we find a sort of tran- 
sition state in the adult, and the eyes are as often found on the right 
as on the left side, and not unfrequently they swim in a vertical position. 
In the adult state they live on the bottom and swim with an undulating 
motion. They prefer sand, with which they cover themselves, Some 
enter fresh water, and others never live out of it. One fresh-water species 
of sole was brought down by me from the Palmer River (Synaptura 
selheimi, Macleay), obtained by Mr. Selheim and others. Giinther 
says that all flat fishes are carnivorous, but this must be subject to some 
exception, as these fresh-water soles were captured by a bait of grass. 
The size and abundance of flat fishes and the flavour of the flesh of the 
majority render this family one of the most useful to man. 
There are about thirty-five genera, of which Hippoglossus, the “ Hali- 
but,” Rhombus, “Turbot,” Solea, the “Sole,” and Plewronectes, the 
Plaices, are the most familiar. 
s 
The Flounder. 
(Plate XXXIIL) 
“Out of the eight or nine species of flat fishes found in Eastern Australia, two 
only are of sufficient size and frequency of occurrence to be classed among our use- 
ful fishes. These are Pseudorhombus russellii, generally called the “ founder, * 
and Synaptura nigra, best known as the ‘‘sole.” The first of these is to be found 
on all the sandy bottoms both inside and outside the bays and inlets of the coast. It’ 
