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THE CALIFORNIA "SOLES." 187 



HiPPOGLOSsoiDBS JoitDANi LockingtoD. 



This speoies is known universally as the "Sole." I have also heard the Italian name "Soglia" 

 iipplied to it more often than to related species. It reaches a length of eighteen inches, and a 

 weight of six or eight pounds, the average being abont three. It ranges from Monterey to Puget 

 Sound, being comparatively scarce north of Cape Mendocino, but in Monterey Bay the commonest 

 species, and forming probably fifteen per cent, of the Flounders in the market of San Francisco. 

 Great numbers are taken by Chinamen on set-lines baited with anchovies. It lives in water of no 

 great depth. It feeds upon anchovies, shrimps, and all sorts of small fishes and Crustacea. It 

 spawns in early summer. Nothing especial is known of its breeding habits. Its enemies and 

 diseases are similar to those of other Flounders. 



It is one of the best of the Flounders as a food-flsh. Great n umbers are dried yearly by tho 

 Chinese, who suspend them by strings on a frame placed on the roofs of the houses, as they are 

 too fleshy to dry well on tables. Here they rustle in the wind, and, striking together, produce a 

 sound like the wind among the leaves. 



"It appears strange," remarks Lockington, "that this common species should have escaped 

 the notice of naturalists until last year. In the markets of San Francisco it abounds throughout 

 every month of the year, and in Monterey Bay it is the most abundant of its tribe. Professor 

 Jordan informs me that about five hundred pounds' weight of this fish are taken daily at Monterey 

 alone by the Chinese, besides large quantities taken by the Italians. An examination of the stock 

 in trade of the Chinese located near Monterey, proved that over nineteen-twentieths of the fish 

 that dry on hurdles and flap in the wind around the hovels consisted of this fish; a few sharks, 

 with Psettichthys melanostictus and Citharichthys sordidvs, constituting the remainder."' 



It occasionally reaches sixteen inches or more in length and a weight of five pounds, and is 

 considered one of the best of its tribe, but is inferior to the Black-dotted Flounder, the Turbot, and 

 one or two others. It becomes rare northward, yet occurs in Puget Sound; south of Monterey it 

 is not on lecord. 



HIPPOGLOSSOIDBS EXiLis Jordan, and Gilbert. 



This species is one of the smallest, reaching a length of about nine inches, and a weight of less 

 than a pound. It inhabits deep waters on sandy bottoms from San Francisco to Puget Sound. 

 It is taken in the sweep-nets of the paranzelle in spring off Point Eeyes in enormous numbers, 

 sometimes nearly a ton at a time. In Puget Sound it is less common, although frequently taken 

 in seines. It has not been noticed by naturalists until the present year, and has probably been 

 rarely taken until the introduction of the paranzelle. It feeds on small fishes, crustaceans, etc. 

 It spawns in spring, perhaps coming from still deeper water, as in the winter none were noticed in 

 the markets. Its enemies and diseases are unknown. Most of those taken by the paranzelle are 

 thrown overboard. The flesh is soft, and the fish does not sell for enough to pay for bringing it in. 



This species is readily distinguished from the preceding by its much more slender torm, and 

 by the large size of the scales, which are very delicately ciliate on their hinder edge. The eyes 

 are very large, their longitudinal diameter contained about three and one-third times in the length 

 of the head. The greatest depth is contained about three and a half times in the total length. 



In July it was tolerably (jpmmon in the markets of San Francisco, and its previous rarity is 

 probably occasioned by the fact that it is only taken in tolerably deep water, and is too small to be 

 considered of much value. 



' Report, Commissioner of Fisheries State of California, 1880, p. 25. 



