THE STURGEONS. 531 
average length of the mature fish is less than two feet, though individuals 
have been caught four feet long. There is a difference in size between the 
males and females. Dr. Evermann critically examined 62 individuals, and 
of these 41 were males and 21 females. The largest male was only 27 
inches long and weighed 3 pounds, while the average length was 21.7 inches 
and the average weight 1.89 pounds. The largest female was 29.5 inches 
long and weighed 4.75 pounds ; the average length was 25.4 inches and the 
average weight 3.24 pounds. Doubtless before the fish had become the 
object of the fisherman’s active pursuit, the average size was greater. 
The Shovel-nose is regularly taken to the markets, and at Louisville, for 
example, it is sold in bunches, 2 to 4 in a “bunch” of about 4 pounds’ 
weight; the normal price is about ro cents a bunch. 
The eggs are utilized for making caviar, and are often mixed with those 
of the Paddle-fish. 
The fish in the neighborhood of Louisville (Kentucky) spawns late in 
June or early in July. 
No adequate illustrations of this remarkable fish have been published in 
any American work, and yet three excellent views were given as long ago as 
1836 in the Annals of the Vienna Museum (a rare work) by Dr. Jacob 
Heckel, a learned Austrian naturalist. The close-set scales of the tail, 
flattish and sharply-edged spade-like snout, and backward-set eyes, are well 
represented in the three views. The figure here given represents well the 
slender tail and elongated caudal lobe. 
PADDLE-FISH. 
The Paddle-fish is so distinct from the Sturgeons and all other American 
fishes that it has been set aside by zodlogists as the type of a peculiar 
family — the Polyodontids. The only other living member of the same family 
is a gigantic fish which inhabits the large rivers of China emptying into the 
Pacific Ocean, — the Yan-tse-Kiang and Hoangho. This species has been 
