THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[FOURTH SERIES.] 

 No. 70. OCTOBER 1873. 



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

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

 By K. F. Kessler.* 



A^rONG the fishes brouglit 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 stm-geons, 

 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 desci'ibed some 

 time ago by the Veil-known Viennese ichthyologist Heckel 

 under the wsoxiq o^ Scaphirhynchiis Rajinesquii. 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 FedtscJienkoi. 



I proceed now to the description of this new species. 



Generic Characters o/" 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, eiglit-lobed, tubercular 

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

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



* Translated by J. T. Naak^' Esq., Assistant in the Department of 

 Trinted Books, British INIuseum, from the Russian text in M^m. Soc. 

 d'Hist. Nat. Mo.sc. vol. x. 1872. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 4. Vol. xii. 10 



