toG MARINE AND FRESHWATER FISHES 



important fishery, the delicacy known as " Caviare " is 

 prepared from the roes, while isinglass is manufactured 

 from the inner lining of their air-bladders. Living ex- 

 amples of the Common Sturgeon have been frequently 

 acclimatised in aquaria ; one over six feet long has now 

 been a resident for many years in one of the larger tanks, 

 sixty feet in length, in the Brighton Aquarium, as also a 

 shoal of small specimens, two of which have been kindly 

 spared by the authorities, and are now on view in the 

 Aquarium Corridor of the Fisheries Exhibition. In cap- 

 tivity they feed voraciously on the common lug-worm 



FIG. 26. — STURGEON {Acipenser sturid). 



(Arenicola), using their snouts and dependent barbels with 

 much dexterity in groping for and detecting the presence of 

 their favourite food ; this is immediately seized by the pro- 

 trusible tubular mouth, which, under ordinary conditions, 

 is retracted out of sight beneath the projecting snout. The 

 Sturgeon was originally denominated a Royal fish, and by 

 an Act of Edward II., now in abeyance, but still unrepealed, 

 was claimed as the property of the Crown. 



Casts of adult examples of both of the two British species 

 and several preserved specimens will be found in the 

 Buckland Museum. 



