402 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
coloured variety (PI at ess a carnaria), with irregularly 
dispersed, dark spots. Nordmann describes (1. c.) a 
PI. jiesus , var. marvnorata, from the Black Sea, iu which 
the eye side was milk-white, with irregular, vermiform 
and roundish, brown spots, edged with orange. 
The Flounder is the commonest species of the genus, 
both in the North Sea and the Baltic. Even in the 
island-belt of Stockholm and off Aland it is common, 
as well as in the west of the Gulf of Finland and in 
the south and central parts of the Gulf of Bothnia. 
From Hudiksvall Dr. Wistrom has forwarded to the 
Royal Museum specimens up to a length of 32 cm. 
North of Qvarken or, according to Mela, in Eat. 64°N., 
however, it becomes extremely rare, if indeed it occurs 
at all in this northernmost part of the Gulf of Bothnia. 
In the Atlantic it is equally common all round Europe, j 
from the White Sea to the Black Sea. Lieutenant | 
Sandeberg brought home numerous specimens from the 
Dwina, off Archangel; and according to his collections, 
the Flounder there attains a length of at least 30 cm. 
Strangely enough, it is not yet known with certainty 
in Iceland® or Greenland * * 6 * ; but Pleat onectes stellatus , 
which Pallas found in Kamchatka, Richardson at the 
mouth of the Coppermine River (on the Arctic coast of 
North America), and Jordan in California, can scarcely 
lie regarded as a distinct species from the Flounder. 
If these forms are identical, the species must attain a 
far more advanced stage of development in the Pacific, 
and a far greater value in California, than it does here, j 
The Flounder prefers a sandy, soft, or weedy bot- 
tom. All the summer it lives in shallow water, and 
retires to deeper water only in winter, when it is sel- 
dom to be found near shore. It lives chief!}’ on mol- 
lusks and crustaceans. It surpasses its kindred species 
in the capability which it possesses in a high degree, 
of thriving in only slightly brackish or even fresh wa- 
ter. Lindstrom obtained specimens that had been “per- 
fectly acclimatised to the fresh water of Alnase Swamp” 
in Gothland, and he also received “conclusive evidence 
that they live in Ejke Swamp.” Into a tributary of the 
little Ronne, that falls into Skelder Bay, according to 
Nilsson, it penetrates to a distance of more than 10 
kilometres from the sea. According - to Malm it goes 
more than 25 kilometres up the River Gotha, and is 
often taken off Kongelf. It also ascends the tiny stream 
Qvistrum in Bohuslan, above the falls at Qvistrum. 
Collett quotes a number of places in Norway, up to 
the extreme north, where it not only ascends the rivers, 
but also makes its way into the lakes, and breeds there. 
K rover and Feeders en give similar instances from 
Jutland, Funen, Laaland, and Zealand. The English 
writers too, from WillughbyV time, and the French, 
from Belon’s'*, also make the same statement with re- 
gard to the Flounder in their own countries. Siebold 
(1. c.) has collected observations on this head from Bel- 
gium and Germany, where this fish goes a long dis- 
tance up the Schelde and Maas with their tributaries, 
and also up the Rhine, in the watershed of which it 
has been caught in the Moselle off Treves, off Mayence, 
and far up the Main. 
In the north of the Cattegat Ekstrom found the 
Flounder full of roe at the end of March. In the Bal- 
tic it spawns in May. It prefers to spawn on shelving- 
coasts. The roe is whitish yellow, and the eggs are 
somewhat smaller than those of the Plaice. Collett 
estimated the number of eggs in a middle-sized Floun- 
der at 413,000. According to Itensen the eggs float 
freely at the surface, and are from 1'15 to 1 '27 mm. 
in diameter; while the newly hatched fry are about 
3‘6 mm. long, without pigment in the eyes, and with 
the vent, which lies close to the vitelline sac, united 
to the intestine only by a fine string. Off Aspo, out- 
side Carlskrona, we have found Flounder fry between 
19 and 32 mm. long at the middle of July. In the 
Cattegat, “at midsummer”, Kroyer found young spe- 
cimens between 65 and 78 mm. long, which he as- 
sumed to belong to the fry of the same year 8 . Some 
young specimens 130 mm. long that were taken on 
the same occasion, he considered to date from the 
spawning-season of the previous year. 
As an article of food the Flounder is one of those 
Flatfishes that are in least request, though it is gener- 
a Faber ( Naturrj . Fisclt. Isl. , p. 144) included it among tlie fishes of Iceland with great hesitation and only on the authority of 
prior statements by Olavius and Mohr. He never met with it himself in Iceland. 
6 Couch states {Hist. Fish. Brit. Isl., vol. Ill, p. 195) that the Flounder is known in Greenland, but he gives no authority for his 
statement; and it is not included in LOtken’s list of the fishes of Greenland (Rev. Cat. 1875). 
c Hist. Piscium, p. 98. 
d Passer Jiuviatilis , vulgo flesus, Belon: De Aquat., p. 144. 
e Cf. the remarks on the growth of the fry of the preceding species. 
