FISHES OF NEW YORK 65 



been related as to leaping into boats and injuring the occu- 

 pants. 



The mouth of the sturgeon is furnished with a very protrac- 

 tile roundish tube having powerful muscles and intended for 

 withdrawing from the mud the various small shellfish and crus- 

 taceans on which the animal subsists. The mouth is surrounded 

 also with numerous tentacles, with tactile properties, which 

 are utilized in procuring food. 



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 Pennsylva- 

 nia, whose monograph forms a part of the Bulletin of the U. S. 

 Fish Commission for 1888. The eggs have been 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 U. S. Fish! Oommission has 

 also recently taken up the culture both of the marine and the 

 lake sturgeon, and these valuable fish may 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 mention in this place. The smoking of the flesh 

 and the manufacture of caviar from the eggs are very import- 

 ant 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. 



The common sturgeon appears ever^^ spring in Gravesend bay, 

 and sometimes in the fall. It is hardy in captivity. 



A female 8 feet long was brought from the mouth of the 

 Delaware river May 20, 1897, to the New York aquarium. It 

 seemed to take no food till December 1, when it began to feed 

 freely on opened hard clams. Early in November 1898, the fish 

 was still alive and healthy. 



