4914 Fishes. 



Fin formula, D. 20 + 10 : P. 14 : V. 1 -f 5 : A. 3 -f 8 : C. 14. Within the last two 

 days I have also taken specimens of the sequoreal pipe fish (Syngnathus cequoreus, 

 Yarr. ii. 442), green -streaked wrasse (Labrus Donovani, Yarr. i. 315), Montagu's 

 sucking fish (Liparis Montagui, Yarr. ii. 374). Of the last fish Mr. Couch says it 

 never attaches itself to any fixed substance : the specimen I had certainly did, 

 both to the wood of a pail and to the side of a glass bottle. — Lester Lester ; Langton 

 Maltravers, Dorset, October 3, 1855. 



[The small size of the wrasse implies its youth, and it seems not improbable 

 that it may be the young of the comber wrasse (Labrus Comber), a fish which 

 agrees with Mr. Lester's in its slender proportion : this species is of excessive 

 rarity, and its occurrence in Swanage Bay is of great interest. — Edward 

 Newman.'] 



The supposed new Flounder. — Enclosed I send you a more lengthened description 

 of the black flounder than that originally communicated. I have this summer 

 obtained three more, and am more convinced of its being distinct: they are from the 

 same locality as the others. The length of the head is to the whole length of the fish 

 as 7 to 31 ; the greatest width of the body without the fins is to the whole length as 

 1 to 3j. Mouth small ; one row of small teeth in each jaw. Lateral line very slightly 

 curved over the pectoral fin, and marked with numerous rough stellated tubercles at 

 its commencement, some more of which are continued below the lateral line as far 

 the widest part of the fish. Scales small. Dorsal and abdominal lines armed with a 

 series of denticulated tubercles, one in each space, between the rays. Upper eye 

 rather the largest, and placed rather more backward than the lower. A strong, 

 prominent, tuberculated, bony ridge between the orbits, the tubercles being continued 

 in a curved line to the commencement of the lateral line. Pectoral and ventral fins 

 longer and more pointed than in the common flounder (Platessa Flesus) ; dorsal fin 

 commencing on a line with the posterior edge of the lower eye, extends almost to the 

 tail ; ventral fin nearly on a line with the margin of the operculum ; anal fin preceded 

 by a spine directed forwards, commences considerably further back than in the plaice, 

 and terminates on the same plane as the dorsal. Fleshy portion of tail narrow ; its rays 

 more elongated than in P. Flesus ; the four central rays longer than the rest. Fin rays 

 in number are— dorsal 57 — 59; pectoral 10; ventral 6; abdominal 41; caudal 18. 

 Colour almost black on both sides. Dorsal line recurved so as to form a notch above the 

 eye. Seven specimens have been examined by me, and in all of them the characters 

 (which are underlined) distinguish this species from the Flesus. I do not lay undue 

 stress on the colour, as varieties of all colours are met with amongst the other Pleuro- 

 nectidae ; but when, associated with it, I find so many points in which it differs from 

 the common flounder, I think myself justified in regarding it as a distinct species. — 

 Edmund Thomas Higgins ; Birkenhead, October 13, 1855. 



[Unwilling as I always am, and always shall be, to damp the ardour of discovery 

 or oppose opinions advanced by my correspondents, yet I feel myself in some 

 respect culpable if I allow opinions to go forth without comment after T have had 

 reason to doubt their soundness. I have taken great interest in the subject discussed 

 by Mr. Higgins ; and have submitted the whole of the evidence to Mr. Yarrell : I have 

 also spoken to several fishmongers on two points, the notch above the eye and the 

 black colour of the under side ; and I learn, 1st, that it is a favourite trick of the 

 fisher-boys to cut a notch just in the place indicated when they catch a flounder too 

 small to be saleable; and they do this in order to be able to recognize it when caught 



