20 ACIPENSERID^l. 



label attached to it, but it has a special interest as 

 belonging to the Museum formed by the late Professor 

 Fleming, and, therefore, representing the Acipenser sturio 

 of his British Animals. 



In the Museum of the College of Surgeons of Edin- 

 burgh, there is a stuffed Sturgeon in excellent order, 

 which measures six feet and a half in length, and does 

 not differ materially in the form and arrangement of the 

 cranial shields from that of the University Museum. 

 The shields both on the head and body are, however, 

 more deeply pitted and furrowed, their radiation is more 

 complete, and the intervening walls of the furrows are 

 more granulated ; more of the imbedded ossicles also are 

 star-shaped. There are eleven dorsal shields ; thirty-two 

 lateral ones on the left side, thirty on the right side ; and 

 the ventral shields are ten and eleven on the right and 

 left sides respectively. The label to this Sturgeon does 

 not indicate its place of capture. 



In the Anatomical Museum of Edinburgh University, 

 there are preparations of several Sturgeons caught near 

 Alloa, and in other parts of the Frith of Forth, made to 

 exhibit the structure of the cartilaginous cranium and 

 other internal parts. One of these shows that the 

 occipital spine of the cartilaginous cranium is acute, 

 and that it does not project so far back as the mastoid 

 or par-occipital processes which are also acute. Kittary's 

 figure of the cartilaginous cranium of his Ac. sturio, an 

 inhabitant of the Caspian, represents the occiput and 

 snout as being both widely rounded (/. c. PL vi. f. 5). 



Taking Heckel and Kner as the best authorities for 

 the continental Ac. siurio, and more especially for the 

 fish of that name in the Danube, we find that, though 

 their figures and description present many characters in 

 common with the Frith of Forth Sturgeon, there are 



