Body rhom-boidal, and nearly as broad as long: the eye-side beset with small, subacute, osseous, tubercles.

P. maximus, Linn. Syst. Nat. torn. i. p. 459. Bloch, Ichth. pl. 49. Don. Brit. Fish. vol. ii. pl. 46. Flem. Brit. An. p. 196. P. tuber-culatus, Turt. Brit. Faun. p. 97. Rhombus maximus asper non squamosus, Will. Hist. Pise. p. 94. tab. F. 2. Turbot, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 233. Id. (Edit. 1812). vol. iii. p. 315. pl. 49. Le Turbot, Cuv. Reg. An. torn. ii. p. 341.

Length

From eighteen inches to two feet; sometimes more.

Description

(Form). Body rhomboidal, approaching to round: greatest breadth, dorsal and anal fins included, almost equalling the entire length without the caudal: head broad: dorsal curve carried on continuously to the mouth, without any depression before or behind the eyes; forming with the ventral curve, at the extremity of the snout, a right angle: lower jaw longest, ascending obliquely to meet the upper: both jaws armed with small card-like teeth: eyes on the left side of the head; both equally advanced towards the mouth; a little remote from each other, the intervening space nearly flat: basal and ascending margins of the preopercle meeting at a right angle; gill-opening large: lateral line commencing behind the orbit of the upper eye, forming a considerable arch above the pectoral, but afterwards straight, dividing the body into two equal parts: both sides of the body smooth, but studded with small, subacute, osseous, tubercles; the tubercles on the upper or eye-side larger and more numerous than those on the lower: scales small: dorsal commencing in front of the eye, immediately above the upper jaw, and extending very nearly to the caudal; greatest elevation of the fin about the middle, attained gradually: anal commencing nearly in a line with the posterior lobe of the opercle, and answering to the dorsal: ventrals appearing like a continuation of the anal; a small space intervening, in which the vent is situate: caudal rounded: number of fin-rays,

D. 67; A. 45; C. 17; P. 12; V. 6.

(Colours). Upper side yellowish brown, mottled and spotted with darker brown: under side white.

Found on many parts of the British coast, in some places, in considerable abundance. Attains to a larger size than any other species in this family, the Holibut excepted. Weight from fifteen to twenty pounds, sometimes as much as thirty, or even more. Flesh firm, and highly esteemed for the table. Food, according to Bloch, insects and worms.

* Loudon's Mag. of Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 84.