72 NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Description Habits. 



THE STURGEON. 



THOUGH this large and fine-tasted fish is of 

 a form terrible to view, it is perfectly harmless; 

 the body, which is from six to eighteen feet in 

 length, is pentagonal, armed from head to tail 

 with five rows of large bony tubercles, each of 

 which ends in a strong recurved tip; one of 

 these is on the back, one on each side, and two 

 on the margin of the belly. The snout is long, 

 and obtuse at the end, and has the tendrils near 

 the tip. The mouth, which is beneath the head, 

 is somewhat like the opening of a purse, and is 

 so formed as to be pushed suddenly out, or re- 

 tracted. The upper part of the body is of a dirty 

 olive colour; the lower part silvery; and the tu- 

 bercles are white in the middle. The tendrils on 

 the snout, which are some inches in length, have 

 so great a resemblance in form to earth-worms 

 that, at first sight, they might be mistaken for 

 them. By this contrivance, this clumsy tooth- 

 less fish is supposed to keep himself in good con- 

 dition, the solidity of his flesh evidently showing 

 him to be a fish of prey. He is said to hide his 

 large body among the weeds near the sea-coast, 

 or at the mouths of large rivers, only exposing 

 his tendrils, which small fish or sea-insects, mis- 

 taking for real worms, approach for plunder, and 

 are sucked into the jaws of their enemy. He 

 has been supposed by some to root into the soil 



