THE STURGEON 39 



The sturgeon requires an immense amount of food to 

 nourish his great carcase, and seeing what a small mouth he 

 has to collect it withal, it behoves him to be diligent and 

 active. Hence his name, " the stirring one," for he routs 

 bravely with his nose in gravel, sand, and mud, his sensitive 

 barbules apprising him of the presence of edible bodies, and 

 his extensile lips enabling him to suck them in. No 

 vegetarian, he lives chiefly on worms, small fish, molluscs, 

 and crustaceans. In captivity, as he may sometimes be seen 

 at the Brighton Aquarium, he devours enormous quantities of 

 lug-worms. Yet his boldness and voracity are of no service 

 to the angler. A sturgeon eight or nine feet long were 

 indeed a worthy quarry to contend for, but at present he 

 cannot be reckoned among our sporting fishes. 



Occasionally an American species, Acipenser maculosus^ finds 

 its way across the Atlantic, and is taken in British estuaries, 

 but not with sufficient frequency to earn for it a place in our 

 native fauna. A variety of sturgeon, with a snout broader 

 and thicker than ordinary, has been distinguished as a species 

 under the title of Acipenser latirostris^ but Dr. Gilnther 

 refuses to admit it to specific rank. 



