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THE STURGEON. 



The sense of touch seems to have its chief residence in the mouth and surrounding 

 parts, the scaly covering rendering the surface of the body necessarily obtuse to sensation. 

 The smell seems to be strongly developed, if it be possible to pronounce an opinion from 

 the size and distribution of the nasal nerves. The brain is very small in these creatures, 

 and from its shape, as well as its dimensions, denotes a low degree of intelligence. 



SKELETON OP PERCH. 



The arrangement of the bones is very curious, and is so complicated that a better idea 

 can be formed by examining the accompanying illustration than by reading many 

 pages of labored description. The skeleton is that of the common perch. 



In the anatomy of the Fishes there are many other interesting structures, which will 

 be described when treating of the particular species in which they are best developed. 



THE fishes comprised in the first order, are called by the rather harshly sounding 

 title of Chondropterygii, a term derived from two Greek words, the former signifying 

 cartilage and the latter a fin, and given to these creatures because their bones contain 

 a very large amount of cartilaginous substance, and are consequently soft and flexible. 

 The bones of the head are rather harder than those of the body and fins. 



It is necessary, before entering into any description of the different species, to pre- 

 mise that the arrangement of the fishes is a most difficult and complicated subject, in 

 which no two systematic naturalists seem to agree entirely. I have, therefore, followed 

 the course which has been adopted throughout the whole of this work, and accepted 

 the arrangement given in the catalogues of the British Museum. 



The cartilaginous fishes are again subdivided into groups, in the first of which the 

 gills are quite free, and the members of this group are accordingly called by the name 

 of Eleutheropdmi, or free-gilled fishes. What quality in the fishes should give birth to 

 such polysyllabic and harsh-sounding names, is not easy to say ; but the fact is patent 

 that not even in botany is the scientific terminology so repulsive as in the fishes. I 

 shall endeavor, as far as possible, to avoid this technical language, and to throw the 

 scientific descriptions to the end of the work, as in the two former volumes ; and the 

 reader may feel sure when his attention is struck by a long and difficult name, that it 

 is only used in consequence of the exigencies of the occasion. 



The first family, of which the common STURGEON is a good and familiar example, are 



