360 STURIONID.'E. 



CHONDROPTERYGII. STURIONIDJE* 



THE COMMON STURGEON. 



Acipenser Sturio, Common Sturgeon, LinntEUS. Bloch, pt. iii. pi. 88. 



Sturio, The Sturgeon, Willughby, p. 239, P. 7, fig. 3. 



Acipenser Sturio, Common Sturgeon, Penn. Brit. Zool. vol. iii. p. 164, pi. 22. 



„ „ L^Esturgeon, Cuvier, Regne An. t. ii. p. 379. 



,, ,, Common Sturgeon, Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 65. 



,, ,, Sturgeon, Flem. Brit. An. p. 173, sp. 30. 



„ ,, Common Sturgeon, Jenyns, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 493, sp. 182. 



Generic Characters. — Body elongated and angular, defended by indurated 

 plates and spines, arranged in longitudinal rows ; snout pointed, conical ; 

 mouth placed on the under surface of the head, tubular, and without teeth. 



All the remaining portion of the British Fishes to be yet 

 described belong to Cuvier's division called Chondroptery- 

 giens, or Cartilaginous Fishes, the skeletons of which are 

 made up of cartilage, and not, as in the divisions of Acan- 

 thopterygiens and Malacopter^giens, made up of true bone. 

 The earthy matter in the hard parts of these fishes is smaller 

 in quantity, is deposited in grains, and does not assume the 

 form, as in other fishes, of distinct osseous fibres. 



In the fishes of the families contained in this order, there 



are several interesting peculiarities. Some have their gills 



free, like those of ordinary fishes ; there are others in which 



the gills are fixed by having their outer edges attached to the 



* The family of the Sturgeons. 



