A History of the Fishes of Massachusetts. 



Bt DAVID HUMPHREYS STOREE, M. D., A.A. S. 



( Continued from VoL VL p. 372.) 



GENUS 11. PLATESSA, Cur. 



Body rhomboidal, depressed; both eyes generally on the right side of the head, 

 one above the other; a row of teeth in each jaw, with others on the pharyngeal 

 bones; dorsal fin commencing over the npper eye, that fin and the anal extend- 

 ing nearly the whole length of the body ; but neither of them joined to the tail ; 

 branchiostegous rays six. 



E^i/es on the Right Side of the Head. 



Platessa plana, Storer. 

 The Flounder, 



(Plate XXX. Fig. 2.) 



Pleuronectes planus, New YorJc Flat-Jish, Mitch., Trans. Lit. and PIiiL Soc. of K". Y,, i. p. 387. 

 Platessa plana, Flounder of Massachusetts^ Stoeee, Eeport, p. 143. 



*' New Yorh Flat-Jish, Dekay, Eeport, p. 295, pL 48, fig. 154, and pi. 49, fig. 158. 



" " Atkes, Best. Journ. Nat Hist., iv. p. 276. 



" " Stoker, Mem. Amer Acad., New Series, ii. p. 476. 



" " " Synopsis, p. 224. 



Color, The smaller and middling-sized specimens, when first taken from the 

 water, are of a greenish-brown tinge, more or less spotted and blotched with rusty 

 brown. The larger individuals are of a general rusty-brown color ; or a dark, 

 blackish brown, or a dull slate-color scarcely exhibiting any spots. The left side 

 is colorless. Pupils black, irides golden. The dorsal, anal, and caudal fins are 

 yellowish-brown ; the two former are generally blotched with darker brown. The 

 pectorals and ventrals are of the color of the right side of the fish. 



Description. The greatest depth of this species is less than half of its length 

 exclusive of the tail. The head is about two fifths the length of the fish includ- 



VOL. VIIJj. 61 



