LIST OF FISH. 



Fara. 1. ACIPENSERID.E. 



Cartilage of cranium and skin of body covered, at intervals, with 

 cartilagineous or bony shields. 



Aeipenser, Linn. Syst. Nat. 



Sturio, Rafin. Anal Nat. 1810. 



Les esturgeons, Cuv. Reg. Anim. 2 ed. ii. 378, 1829. 



Bracb. cataphracta seu Sturiones, Mull. Abh. Akad. Berl. 1836. 



Sturiona, part, Rafin. Anal. Nat. !l - 2. 



Acipenseridas (Acipenserini), Bonap. Syst.Ich.th. 1838, 13. 



Acipenserida?, Gray, Syn. B. M. 1840. 



Acipenserini, Mull. Weign. Arch. 134,1845. 



1. ACIPENSER. 



Nose conical, tapering. Head shielded. Mouth beneath the 

 base of the muzzle, with four or six beards in front. Eyes and nos- 

 trils lateral. Body elongate, with longitudinal series of bony plates. 

 Dorsal single behind tbe ventral and over the anal. The tail-fin 

 produced with a short under lobe. 



Itafinesque (Ic/ithyologia Ohiensis, 79, 1820) proposed to divide 

 this genus into two, thus: — 1. Sturio, with five. 2. Sterlctus, with 

 three rows of bony plates. 



Professor Brandt (in Brandt $• Ratz. Med. Zool. ii. 1830, 4to.)at 

 first divided the sturgeons as follows : — 



1. Huso. — Snout acute or obtuse, wholly or partly cartilaginous, 



more or less pellucid ; shields which arm the body distant from 

 one another. A. Huso, A. dauricus, A. brevirostris, A ru- 

 bicundus. 



2. Sturio. — Snout obtuse or awl-shaped, covered with a bony shield 



not pellucid; shields distant. A. Guldensta3dtii, A. Sturio, 

 A. Lichensteinii, A. Schypa, A. Heckelii. 



3. Sterleta. — Snout awl-shaped, covered with bony shields, not pel- 



lucid ; shields imbricated. A. lluthenus. 



4. Helops. — Snout long (one-sixth or one-seventh of the length of 



the bodv), covered with strong bony shields ; shields distant. 

 A. stellatus, A. oxyrhynchus, A. maculosus. 



Professor Brandt, subsequently, in the same work, p. 349, re- 

 duced the genus into three sections with the following character : — 



