THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 70. OCTOBER 1873. 



XXXV. — On a remarkable Fish of the Family of Sturgeons 

 discovered by M. A. P. Fedchenko in the River Suir-dar 

 By K. F. Kessler.* 



Among the fishes brought by A. P. Fedchenko in 1871 from 

 Turkestan there was one which, in many respects, deserves 

 special attention. This fish belongs to the family of sturgeons, 

 but differs much from all the species of the genus Acipenser, 

 in which Russia is so rich, and greatly resembles one of the 

 species of the North- American sturgeons, fully described some 

 time ago by the well-known Viennese ichthyologist Heckel 

 under the name of Scaphirhynchus Rafinesquii. ■ The affinity 

 between the specimen discovered by M. Fedchenko and the 

 above-named North- American fish, in spite of a few differences, 

 is on the whole so great that, in my opinion, these fishes 

 belong to one and the same genus ; and accordingly I propose 

 to call our Turkestan fish Scaphirhynchus Fedtschenkoi. 

 I proceed now to the description of this new species. 

 . Generic Characters of Scaphirhynchus. — The body is fusi- 

 form, the fore part rather thick. The broad head ends in 

 a more or less long spade-like snout ; the transverse mouth, 

 situated on the lower side of the head, does not contain any 

 teeth, but is surrounded by a fleshy, eight-lobed, tubercular 

 lip ; in front of the mouth, but at a little distance from it, 

 there are placed in a transverse series four barbels ; the so- 



* Translated by J. T. Naak6, Esq., Assistant in the Department of 

 Printed Books, British Museum, from the Russian text in Mem. Soc. 

 d'Hist. Nat. Mosc. vol. x. 1872. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Sex. 4. Vol. xii. 19 



