THE STURGEONS 



Family II. Acipoiscridce 



On the white sand of the bottom 

 Lay the monster, Mishe-Nahma, 

 Lay the sturgeon, King of Fishes. 



— Hiawatha 's Fishing. 



Body long, subcylindrical, armed with 5 rows of long bucklers, 

 each with a median carina which terminates in a spine, which 

 sometimes becomes obsolete with age; a median dorsal series and 

 a lateral and abdominal series on each side, the latter sometimes 

 deciduous; between the rows the skin is rough with small irregular 

 plates; head covered with bony plates joined by sutures; snout 

 produced, depressed, conical, or spatulate; mouth small, inferior, 

 protractile, with thickened lips; no teeth; 4 barbels in a transverse 

 series on the lower side of the snout in front of the mouth; eyes 

 small; nostrils large, double, in front of eyes; gills 4; an 

 accessory opercular gill; gill-membranes united to the isthmus; no 

 branchiostegals; fm-rays slender, all articulated; ventral fms with 

 fulcra, many-rayed and behind middle of body; tail heterocercal, the 

 lower caudal lobe developed, the upper covered with rhomboid scales. 



Large fishes of the seas and fresh waters of northern regions, 



most of the species being migratory. Two genera and 20 species 



are known, although more than 100 nominal species have been 

 described. 



a. Spiracles present; snout subconic; Acipenser, 5 



aa. Spiracles obsolete; snout subspatulate; Scaphirhynchtis, 13 



GENUS ACIPENSER LINN^US 

 The Sturgeons 



A small spiracle over each eye; snout subconic, more or less 

 depressed below the level of the forehead; rows of bony shields 

 distinct throughout, the tail not depressed nor mailed. 



Of the true sturgeons there are about 16 species, of which 5 

 occur in our waters. 



a. Plates between ventrals and anal (in small, in 2 rows, of 4 to 

 8 plates each ; iransmontanus, 5 



