660 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



peculiar habit of this fish, no account of which I have ever seen. It is this: While the parent still 

 remains with the young, if the family become suddenly alarmed, the capacious mouth of the old 

 fish will open, and in rushes the entire host of little ones; the ugly inaw is at once closed, and off 

 she rushes to a place of security, when again the little captives are set at liberty. If others are 

 conversant with the above facts, I shall be very glad, if not, shall feel chagrined for not making 

 them known long ago.'" ' 



194. THE PADDLE-FISHES POLYODONTID-iE. 



The "Paddle-fish" or "Duck-billed Cat," Polyodon spathula, is one of the most characteristic 

 fishes of the rivers of the Western and Southern States. It reaches a length of four to six feet, 

 and a weight of thirty pounds or more. It feeds on minute organisms present in mud. The long 

 snout or spatula is used to stir up the mud on which, and the animals within it, the fish feeds. 

 The fish is rarely or never used as food. Jordan states that it abounds in the lower parts of the 

 Ohio River, where it is often taken in nets. 



195. THE STURGEONS ACIPENSERID2E. 

 THE STUBGEONS OF THE ATLANTIC COAST. 



Two species of Sturgeon are supposed to exist on our Atlantic coast. The most abundant of 

 these, Acipenser oxyrhynchus, is now generally supposed to be identical with the common Sturgeon 

 of Europe, A. sturio. The other, A. brevirostris, which is distinguished from A. oxyrhynchus by its 

 shorter and blunter nose, has not yet been found north of Cape Cod, and appears to be compara- 

 tively less abundant, although both species are found in great numbers in the larger rivers and 

 estuaries during the summer season, and are frequently seen leaping from the water, especially at 

 dusk. A leaping Sturgeon is a striking object, the whole length of the fish appearing above the 

 surface before it falls back with a splash into the water. 



The Sturgeon attains a length of five to twelve feet. In Europe, individuals of the common 

 Sturgeon eighteen feet long have been secured. The spawning season is in spring and early 

 summer. Their eggs have several times been artificially impregnated by the fish culturists 

 attached to the Fish Commissions of the United States and of New York. They spawn in the 

 lower stretches of the rivers, and perhaps also at their mouths, in brackish water. 



Sturgeon are classed by fishermen among the fishes which " live by suction." The mouth is 

 situated upon the under surface of the head, and is not provided with teeth, but is surrounded with 

 a cup-shaped organ composed of powerful muscular tissue, by means of which it grubs for its food 

 in the mud. Its stomach resembles that of the menhaden and mullet, though comparatively more 

 muscular, since, like the gizzard of a fowl, one of its uses is to triturate the food which has been 

 swallowed, and which consists largely of mollusks and crustaceans. Around the mouth is a group 

 of large and sensitive tentacles, which aid the fish in its search for food. 



No one has yet made a careful study of the habits of the Sturgeon in our waters, and in fact 

 European zoologists have made little progress in the study of their own species. 



Within the past few years the capture of the Sturgeon for smoking and for the manufacture of 

 caviare from its eggs has attained considerable importance on the Atlantic coast. 



The capture and economic uses, and the statistics of the products of the sturgeon fishery, will 

 be fully discussed by Col. M. McDonald in a subsequent portion of this work. 



1 Sport MM.-I M'S Gazetteer, 1877, pp. 324-336. 



