PLAISE. 



Pleuronectes Platessa. P. corpore subfusco glabro maculis rotun- 

 dis fulvis, capite tuberculis sex. 



Smooth brownish Flounder, with round fulvous spots, and 

 six tubercles on the head. 



Pleuronectes Platessa. P. oculis dextris, corpore glabro, tuber- 

 culin sex capitis. Lin. Syst. Nat. p. 456\ 



The Plaise. Venn. hit. zool. 3. Will, ickth. p. Q5. Block, t. 

 42. 



This species is, in general, easily distinguished 

 at first sight from others of the genus by its shape 

 and colours, being very broad and fiat, and of a 

 fine palish brown above, marked both on the body 

 and iins by pretty numerous, but rather distant, 

 round, and moderately large, orange-coloured spots : 

 the under side is white : behind the left eye is a 

 row of six tubercles, reaching as far as the com- 

 mencement of the lateral line : the mouth is rather 

 small, the lower jaw longer than the upper, and 

 both furnished with a row of small, and rather 

 blunt teeth. 



The Plaise is an inhabitant of the Mediterranean, 

 Baltic, and Northern seas, and is found in consider- 

 able plenty about our own coasts. Mr. Pennant 

 observ es that it is sometimes taken of the weight of 

 fifteen pounds, but its more general weight is far 

 short of this ; one of eight or nine pounds being 

 reckoned a large fish: the best are said to be taken 

 off Rye on the coast of Sussex, and about the 

 Dutch coasts : they spawn in the beginning of 

 May; their general food consists of small fishes. 



