164 huso. 



Sturgeon, ( Adpenser huso, Linnseus.) A larger fish than the 

 Common Sturgeon, having been often found of the length of 

 twenty-five feet; general shape the same; colour dusky, or 

 blackish blue above, silvery on the sides and abdomen, with 

 a tinge of rose-colour on the latter; general appearance 

 smoother than in the Common Sturgeon, the dorsal tubercles 

 being less protuberant, and those along the sides much smaller, 

 and in some specimens of a very advanced growth altogether 

 wanting; mouth much larger than in the A. sturio, with thick 

 crescent-shaped lips; skin smooth and viscid. Native of the 

 Northern, (Black,) and Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, 

 migrating from them into the adjoining rivers; found more 

 particularly in the Volga and Danube." (Shaw's "General 

 Zoology," vol. v, p. 375, pi. 159.) 



Another description is, Snout very obtuse, shorter than the 

 diameter of the mouth, but like the Common Sturgeon, sub- 

 ject to variation in this respect. Eyes very small. Body thick, 

 with five rows of plates; the fins small. As the fish attains 

 its full growth these plates often drop off, so that none appear. 



I find among my notes, that, in company with Mr. Yarrell, 

 I had an opportunity of seeing the head and tail, without the 

 body, of a Sturgeon, the snout of which was very short, flat 

 and bent upward, as that of the Huso is represented in the 

 very rough plates of the older writers; but as Mr. Yarrell has 

 not referred to this species in his work on British fishes, I 

 conclude that he did not suppose the evidence of its being the 

 Huso sufficient to authorize his classing that species among the 

 acknowledged fishes of our seas. 



