THE LEMON DAB. 
197 
Pennant. About an inch behind the bases of pectoral fin on upper side, 
but nearer the D. fin than its origin, a lemon-formed markf of an inch in 
length, and in colour dull yellow, appears in both specimens, whence pro- 
bably the name. Orange stripe edging the operculum not so conspicuous 
as in last specimen, being clouded a little with brown. The body of this 
fish is covered with a thick slime, whence Pennant remarks its name of 
Smear dab originated. 
March 18 th, 1836. I procured a specimen in Belfast market. Its 
length is 10 inches ; D. 85 ; P. 9 ; V. 5 ; A. 74 ; C. 19 in all. 
Colour as in first specimen. 
It is well described generally by Jenyns. Its stomach contained a 
Nereis 6 inches long. 
April 11 th, 1837. I obtained a specimen in Belfast market which was 
brought from Killough. It is 16 l inches long. 
D. 95 ; A. 78 ; P. 10 (on both sides 1st ray short) ; V. 5 (the 4th 
ray on upper fin branching from the base) ; C. 20 in all (an accessory ray 
is interposed between two of the ordinary long rays) ; P. fins pretty 
equal in size. 
Lateral line sloping equally on both sides. 
Mucous secretion prevailing much over the fish. 
Colour. Entire upper side including head and fins brown of every 
shade, in fact the fish looks like a painter’s pallet on which every possible 
shade of brown was dashed at random. A stripe of orange on posterior 
edge of operculum only below P. fin, a line of pale reddish-white marks 
the remaining edge of operculum ; lips brownish red. No lemon-formed 
mark, as in other specimens I examined (see notes) ; under side wholly 
pure white. 
On dissection it proved a female exhibiting a vast number of ova 
about half the size of ordinary clover seed. The stomach was filled 
with specimens of Nereis, some 6 inches long, nothing whatever else 
appeared. 
The Long Rough Dab, or Sandnecker, Platessa Limandoides, Jenyns. 
A specimen of this rare fish was obtained by Mr. W. Todhunter, off 
Cape Clear, in the winter of 1848. The specimen is now in the Dublin 
University Museum. 
The Pole, Craig Fluke— called White Sole in Ireland— 
Platessa Pola,* Cuv., 
Is taken on the North-East, East, and South-West coasts. 
Mr. Yarr ell, in his Br. Fish., vol. ii. p. 316, published in 1841, after 
mentioning two specimens of this fish, adds, “ these are the only examples 
of this fish taken in our seas that I am acquainted with. He was not, 
however, aware that I had noticed the sp. in the Zool. Proc. 1837, and 
had given the following detailed descriptive account in the Annals for 
Sept., 1838 : — 
u Platessa Sola, Cuv., Pole. — On April 26, 1837, I procured in Belfast 
market six specimens of this fish, which had been taken along with turbot, &c., 
at Ardglass, on the coast of Down. Such is the difference in the number of rays 
* Not the P. Pola of Cuv., according to a writer in Weigmann’s Archiv., who 
quotes Yarr., Jenyns, Thompson’s P. Pola as Pleuronectes cynoglossus, Linn. : 
mine is the same as Yarr. and Jenyns’s fish, called P. Pola. 
