THE FOOD AND GAME FISHES OF NEW YORK. 267 



of the University of Pennsylvania, whose monograph forms a part of the Bulletin of 

 the U. S. Fish Commission for 1888. The eggs have been fertilized and developed 

 artificially by Seth Green and others many years ago, and in some parts of Europe 

 the hatching of the species has been carried on successfully. The U. S. Fish 

 Commission has also recently taken up the culture both of the marine and the 

 lake sturgeon, and these valuable fish may soon be reared on an extensive scale. 



The utilization of the flesh, the skin and air-bladder and the eggs of the stur- 

 geon is so well known as to require little more than passing mention in this place. 

 The smoking of the flesh and the manufacture of caviare from the eggs are very 

 important industries along our eastern coast. 



The sturgeons are easily taken in gill nets and pounds, but the great strength of 

 the fish frequently entails considerable loss of apparatus. 



The Common Sturgeon appears every spring in Gravesend Bay, and sometimes 

 in the fall. It is hardy in captivity. A female 8 feet long was brought from the 

 mouth of the Delaware River, May 20, 1897, to the New York Aquarium. It 

 seemed to take no food till December I, when it began to feed freely on opened 

 hard clams. 



"j 



' 



LAKE STURGEON. 



8. Lake Sturgeon (Acipenscr rubicundus LeSueur). 



Acipenser rubicundus DEKAY, N. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 344, pi. 58, fig. 191, 1842 ; JORDAN 

 & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, U. S. Nat. Mus., I, 106, 1896. 



This is known as the Lake Sturgeon, Ohio River Sturgeon, Rock Sturgeon, 

 Bony Sturgeon, Red Sturgeon and Ruddy Sturgeon. It inhabits the Mississippi 

 and Ohio Rivers and the Great Lakes, and is abundant in the Alleghany. From 

 the lakes it ascends the streams in spring for the purpose of spawning. Dr. 

 Richardson states that the northern limit of the sturgeon in North America is 

 about the 55th parallel of latitude. 



The Lake Sturgeon is smaller than the common marine sturgeon, the average 

 adult being less than 5 feet in length. The average weight of 14,000 mature 

 sturgeon taken at Sandusky, O., was about 50 pounds. It frequently reaches a 

 length of 6 feet. 



In the Lakes the species, according to observations of James W. Milner, inhabits 



