FISHES OF PENNSYLVANIA. 7 


The reproductive habits of the sturgeon and the embryology of the 
species have been made the subject of an exhaustive study by Prof. John 
A. Ryder, of the University of Pennsylvania, whose monograph forms a 
part of the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 1888, re- 
cently published. 
The eggs were fertilized and developed artificially by Seth Green 
and others many years ago, and in some parts of Europe the hatching 
of the species has been carried on successfully. The United States Fish 
Commission has also recently taken up the culture both of the marine 
and the lake sturgeon and these valuable fish will soon be reared on an 
extensive scale. 
The utilization of the flesh, the skin and air bladder and the eggs of 
the sturgeon is so well known as to require little more than passing men- 
tion in this place. The smoking of the flesh and the manufacture of 
caviare from the eggs are very important industries along our eastern 
coast. 
The sturgeons are easily taken in gill nets and pounds, but the great 
strength of the fish frequently entails considerable loss of apparatus. 
7. Acipenser brevirostrum Le Svevr. 
The Short-nosed Sturgeon. 
In the short-nosed sturgeon the snout is very blunt and only about one-fourth to 
one-thirdaslongasthe head. Thetfourshortbarbels area little nearer to the end ofthe 
snout than to the mouth, and do notreach to the mouth. The head is one-fifth to two- 
ninths as long as the total to the fork ofthe tail ; the distance between the eyes slightly 
greater than length of snout and somewhat more than one-third length of head. The 
average number of bucklersin the dorsal series is 10 to 11; in the lateral series, 25; in 
the ventral row, 7 to 8. Nopreanalscutes. The unarmored portion of the skin, accord- 
ing to recent observations of Prof. John A. Ryder, is almost free from prickles and 
ossifications. D. 33; A. 19 to 22; V.17 to 21; P. 30 to 31; C. 60, its lower lobe two- 
fifths as long as the upper, measuring from the fork. The color of the skin of the 
upper parts is reddish brown; lower parts nearly white. Peritoneum dark brown, 
viscera almost black. : 
This little-known sturgeon has not been positively recognized any- 
where except in the Delaware and only a few specimens have been ob 
tained in that river. Prof. Ryder collected five examples at Delaware 
City in the spring of 1888 and has published a description and figures 
of the species in the Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission for 
that year. 
Size.—The largest specimen known was thirty-three inches long; in- 
dividuals twenty inches long are capable of reproducing the species. 
Uses.—At the present time the short-nosed sturgeon probably never 
comes into the markets owing to its small size, which prevents its cap- 
ture in the nets used fortaking the common sturgeon. About 1817, how- 
ever, it was brought in the shad season to Philadelphia and sold for 
twenty-five to seventy-five cents each. 
