aOO THE FKE.SII-WATER EISIIES (>E EUKoPE. 



In the young the relative leng-tli of the head is, as usual, nuicli greater, 

 heini;", in specimens a foot and a half long", more than one-quarter of the length 

 of the fish. The operculum is better developed ; the lower lobe of the })eetoral 

 lin is relatively smaller, and all the shields are close together. The females 

 have the snout shoi'lcr, the hoU}' ray in the pectoral Hn weaker, and the 

 dorsal and lateral shields snudler, though the terminal hook is rather longer. 



Acipenser schypa (Gildknstadt). 



There is some difference of o])inion as to the claim of this (ish to speeilic 

 distinction from Jcipenser ffilldini-sfadfH, and certainly the resendtlance in 

 external characters is sufficiently close to justify Dr. Giinther in uniting them ; 

 hut there is some difference in the geographical distribution, and a not incon- 

 siderable difference in the shields of the head, which makes it convenient to 



keep them distinct, though nothing but an examination of a large series of 

 specimens, such as is possible only in their native home, could test the value of 

 the characters by which we shall define the species (Fig. ISO). 



Dr. O. Grimm states that the distribution of the Sch^p, as he terms this 

 species, which is known in Austria as the Dick, is the same as that of Aci- 

 penser stellatnH, except that it is also found in the Sea of Aral, where no other 

 Sturgeon occurs. It is rare in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, though it 

 ascends the Danube as far as Komorn. The great centres of the fishery are in 

 the Sea of Aral and on the rivers Ural and Kur, where it reaches a weight 

 of about sixty poimds. It is not so large in the Danube, and those taken 

 in Hungary vary from twenty-four to forty pounds in weight. 



It is a short-nosed species, in which the head is one-sixth of the total 

 length. The 1)rea(lth between the opercular plates is equal to that of the 

 fore-])art of the body, and this measurement is the same as the greatest height 

 of the body, which is over the base of the pectoral fin. The broad rounded 

 snout rises obliquely to the back of the head, where it is overlapped by the first 

 dorsal shield, which, in its position, has quite the aspect of belonging to the 

 cephalic series (Fig. 187). 



