FLOUNDER-FISH ES. 
391 
In Scania it is known as sldtta (= smooth, as it feels 
smooth when the hand is passed over it from the 
head to the tail) and anglepiga or anger pig a (Vang, 
Thin-girl), in Blekinge, according to Nilsson sldttika 
(Smooth Flounder) or fjallflundra (Scaly Flounder), 
and in Gothland, according to Lindstrom, glade 
( glatt — smooth). In Svensk Zoologi Qvensel and, after 
him, Svartz called the species tunglik flundra (Sole- 
like Flounder) or dragskcidda (Handline Dab). In 
Denmark it is known as slcette (cf. sldtta, above) and 
ising. 
Jl 
Fig. 108. Lower pharyngeals in Pleuronectes Jtesus, seen f 
In Scandinavia as throughout the north-west of 
Europe, north of the Spanish Peninsula, the two follow- 
ing species are the commonest and, therefore, the best- 
known within the genus. They are remarkable, in the 
first place, for the unusually great variability of their cha- 
racters, a circumstance which approximates them so clo- 
sely to each other that Mobius and Heincke have declared, 
not without reason, that “it may appear on closer exa- 
mination that these two species are links in a common 
form-series with the finest shades of distinction.” Com- 
pared with the preceding species they have one common 
character in the larger size of the head in the majority 
of cases, a character which, as we have seen, generally 
belongs to juvenile forms. In addition to this juvenile 
character we find a greater prevalence in them than in 
the other species, of deviations from the generic cha- 
racter which fixes the right side as the eye side: sini- 
st-ral and double individuals (coloured on both sides) are 
comparatively common in these species. 
Throughout the Scandinavian fauna, to tlie best of 
our knowledge, Ave may rely upon the validity of the 
character, derived from the length of the head, by Avhich 
the Dab is distinguished in the above scheme from the 
platessa-g roup*. But the above-mentioned Pacific form 
of the limanda-gvoup apparently impairs the validity of 
this character, and we must, therefore, have recourse to 
an internal character. The first internal character that 
The Dab is taken together Avith other species in 
Flounder-nets and seines. It also takes a bait. Its fla- 
vour is considered tolerably good. It is best during 
late autumn and Avinter, before the spawning-season. In 
Duhamel’s time®, and probably long before then, the 
Dab had already Avon favour in France, and the inland- 
ers preferred it to the Plaice, as it could be conveyed 
longer distances than other Flounders Avithout losing its 
flavour. It also bears the process of drying and pre- 
serving like stock-fish better than the Plaice, says 
Duhamel. (Sundevall, Smitt.) 
'in above, and with the anterior end upward. Magn. 3 diarn. 
presents itself is the structure of the lower pharyngeals 
and their teeth. In all the Flounders of Avhich Ave have 
already treated, the lower pharyngeals are narroAv, and 
more or less resemble branchial arches, Avhile their teeth 
are pointed. In the tAvo folloAving species and their nearest 
relatives these bones are broader and more or less tri- 
angular, and their inner margins are more or less con- 
tiguous at the middle of the floor of the pharynx. They 
are also furnished Avith obtuse, broad, molar teeth, some- 
times arranged as closely as cobble-stones in a roadAvay 
(fig. 108). Another character may. be derived from the 
structure of the skull — but in this respect Ave have 
examined only three species of the Platessa- group. Start- 
ing from the Pole (PI. cgnoglossus) Ave have seen the 
cranial part of the skull gradually groAv longer and 
longer in proportion to the facial part thereof. This 
relation is shoAvn above by a comparison betAveen the 
length of the upper orbit and the total length of the 
skull. In the Pole and the Lemon Dab the length of the 
upper orbit measures about 7 2 , in the Common Dab only 
7 9 , of the length of the skull from the tip of the head 
of the vomer to the occipital foramen. In adult exam- 
ples of the folloAving species, on the other hand, this 
proportion is only slightly more than l / 3 (about 34 
or 35 %). The natural relation betAveen the preceding 
species and the following ones becomes clearer, how- 
ever, after Ave have studied the latter. 
“ Traite des Peches, sect. IX, Chop. I, article V. 
6 The subgenus Platessa of some authors. 
