24 ACIPENSERID^E. 



quarters long, and another from the Thames, both with 

 cranial shields similar to those of the cut. The barbels 

 are short, tapering, and a little flattened, and the ossicles 

 in the skin are partly stellate, but mostly minute and 

 angular, as a sketch obligingly made by Mr. Gerard 

 shows. This gentleman also mentions that the coracoid 

 shields are netted, grooved, and radiated, and that the 

 cranial shields are grooved and radiated with a series of 

 ridges connecting the centres of the principal pairs of 

 shields. If this be not a species distinct from the Frith 

 of Forth Sturgeon it is at least a notable variety, but to 

 be ranked equally with it among the Antacei, if the form 

 of the mandibular lip will allow, and not with the Stu- 

 riones of Heckel and Kner. There is still needed a good 

 description of the recent fish in various stages of its 

 growth. This article has been extended to an unusual 

 length, but accuracy did not seem attainable otherwise. 

 In the terminating vignette, which appeared in the second 

 edition of British Fishes, the intervals between the shields 

 and the smallness of the opercular plate denote that the 

 original was a young fish, though it does not show the 

 thin elevated crests of the small specimen in the Free 

 Kirk Museum. 



