COMMON STURGEON. 159 



taken from an American newspaper, I have seen it announced 

 that a lady's riding-whip, twenty-one inches long and mounted 

 with silver, had been found in the stomach of a Sturgeon of 

 no large size. The fish might be of a different species from 

 our own, but the fact seems to shew that not all of them 

 are satisfied with merely molluscous food. 



The Common Sturgeon is generally valued at the tables of 

 the rich; and indeed it appears that by some mistake the 

 high reputation of the once celebrated Sterlet or Elops, has 

 slid away to what, by all accounts, although still good, is a 

 fish of lower quality. When taken in the Thames, within the 

 jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor, it is usually judged a proper 

 present for the Royal table; but although still regarded as a 

 dainty, it is mentioned among other things by Fitz-Stephen, 

 who wrote an account of London in the twelfth century, as 

 being a dish to be obtained with ease at the then newly- 

 erected hostelry in the city. 



Dr. Parnell, when closely studying the British fishes of the 

 northern districts of our island, was led to believe that there 

 Avere two British species of what had hitherto been treated 

 as one; and from the prominent characters on Avhich his 

 distinction was built, he was led to give them the names of the 

 Broad-nosed and the Narrow-nosed species. If individual 

 examples are to be selected there is no doubt that such a 

 division might be maintained; and accordingly, naturalists, whose 

 observations at this early stage were limited to the few 

 examples preserved in museums, came forward to confirm 

 these distinctions, and to add others' derived from the partic- 

 ular nature and arrangement of the bony plates covering the 

 head. The more modern works on the natural history of 

 fishes, contain illustrative figures of this kind; but more ex- 

 tended inquiry has gone far to throw doubt on the supposition 

 that there is more than one British species of the Common 

 Sturgeon. The Broad-headed and the Narrow-snouted varieties 

 in their extreme divergency differ greatly, and the latter 

 appears to ' be the most numerous of the two. But there has 

 been found every gradation of form among them, so that in 

 many an instance it would be difficult to assign its proper 

 place to the individual exainple; and with regard to the form 

 and arrangement of the plates which cover the head, although 



