104 HUSO. 



Sturgeon, (Acip&nser huso, Linnaeus.) A larger fish than the 

 Common Sturgeon, havmg 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. stut'io, 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 droji oiF, so that none appear. 



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

 I had an o])portunity 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 old writers; but as Mr. Yarrell has 

 not referred to this sj)ecies in his work on British fishes, I 

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

 Huso sufficient to authorise his classing that species among the 

 acknowledged fishes of our seas. 



