Suborder Heterosomata 489 
species allied to these abound in the West Indies, known in a 
general way as whiffs. The most widely distributed of these 
are Cutharichthys spilopterus of the West Indies, Cztharichthys 
gilbertt and Azevia panamensis of Panama, Orthopsetta sordida 
of California, and especially the common small-mouthed Etropus 
crossotus found throughout tropical America. Numerous other 
genera and species of the turbot tribe are found on the coasts 
of tropical Asia and Africa, most of them of small size and weak 
structure. 
Samaris cristatus of Asia is the type of another tribe of 
flounders and the peculiar hook-jawed Oncopterus darwinit of 
Patagonia represents still another tribe. 
The Halibut Tribe: Hippoglossine.—In the great halibut tribe 
the mouth is large and the ventral fins symmetrical. The 
arctic and subarctic species have the eyes and color on the 
Fic. 436.—Etropus crossotus Jordan & Gilbert. Cedar Keys, Fla. 
right. Those of the warmer regions (bastard halibut) have the 
eyes and color on the left. These grow progressively smaller 
_ in size to the southward, the mouth being smaller and more 
feebly armed in southern species. 
The largest of the family, and the one commercially of far 
greatest importance, is the halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus). 
This species is found on both shores of both oceans, north of 
about the latitude of Paris, Boston, Cape Mendocino, and Mat- 
sushima Bay in Japan. Its preference is for offshore banks 
