360 STUKIONID.'E. 



CHONDROPTERYGll. SIURIONID^:* 



l^P?i^?V 



THE COMMON STURGEON. 



Acipenser Sturio, Common Sturgeon, Linnaius. Bloch, pt. iii. pi. 88. 



Sturio, The Sturgeon, Willughby, p. 239, P. 7, fig. 3. 



Acipenser Sturio, Common Sturgeon, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 164, pi. 22. 



,, ,, UEsturgeon, Cuvier, Regne An. t. ii. p. 379. 



,, ,, Common Sturgeon, Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 65. 



,, ,, Sturgeon, Flem. Biit. An. p. 173, sp. 30. 



J, ,, Common Sturgeon, Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 493, sp. 182. 



Generic Characters. — Body elongated and angular, defended by indurated 

 plates and spines, arranged in longitudinal rows ; snout pointed, conical ; 

 mouth placed on the under surface of the head, tubular, and without teeth. 



All the remaining portion of the British Fishes to be yet 

 described belong to Cuvier's division called Chondropteri/- 

 giens, or Cartilaginous Fishes, the skeletons of which are 

 made up of cartilage, and not, as in the divisions of Acan- 

 tho])terygiens and Malacopterygiens, made up of true bone. 

 The earthy matter in the hard parts of these fishes is smaller 

 in quantity, is deposited in grains, and does not assume the 

 form, as in other fishes, of distinct osseous fibres. 



In the fishes of the families contained in this order, there 

 are several interesting peculiarities. Some have their gills 

 free, like those of ordinary fishes ; there are others in which 

 the gills arc fixed by having their outer edges attached to the 



* The family of the Sturgeons. 



