FOREST, LAKE, AND RIVER 



pounds in weight. It is of a dark olive color 

 above, and paler or reddish on the sides, and often 

 irregular, blackish spots appear on the body. In 

 the young fish, the snout is long and slender, 

 which, however, becomes blunt with age, when it 

 is considerably shorter than the head. It may be 

 also recognized, by the angler layman, by the 

 many rows of spines on the skin. 



The third form is the short-nosed sturgeon 

 [Acipenser brevirostris), which ranges from Cape 

 Cod to Florida, but is very rare in New England 

 waters. It is similar in color to the two species 

 above-named, and its nose is very short and obtuse, 

 about one-quarter the length of the head. The 

 shields or bony plates covering the body are 

 smoothish, and rather larger than those of other 

 species of American sturgeon, and the last one on 

 the back is very small, less than one-half the size 

 of the one before it. 



It is possible that the shovel-nosed or white 

 sturgeon (Scaphirhyncus platorhynchus, " broad 

 snout") has been or will be found in the waters 

 of Ontario, as it is quite common in the streams 

 and lakes of the Mississippi Valley. Its body is 

 very long, tapering into a slender, depressed tail 

 with a filament extending beyond the tail fin, 

 which, however, sometimes disappears in the adult 

 204 



