262 
NATURAL HISTORY 
beneath the head, is somewat like the opening of a purse, 
and is so formed as to be pushed suddenly out, or re- 
tracted, The upper part of the body is of a dirty olive 
colour; the lower parts silvery; and the tubercles are 
white in the middle* The tendrils on the snout, which 
are some inches in length, have so great a resemblance 
in form to the earth-worms, that at the first sight, they 
might be mistaken for them. By this contrivance, this 
clumsy toothless fish is supposed to keep themselves in 
good condition, the solidity of his flesh evidently showing 
him to be a fish of prey. He is said to hide his large body 
among the weeds near the sea-coast, or at the mouths of 
large rivers, only exposing his tendrils, which small fish 
or sea insects, mistaking for real worms, approach for 
plunder, and are sucked into the jaws of their enemy.— 
He has been supposed by some to root into the soil at 
the bottom of the sea or river; but the tendrils above- 
mentioned, which hang from his snout over his mouth, 
must themselves be very inconvenient for this purpose; 
and as he has no jaws, he evidently lives by suction, and, 
during his residence in the sea, marine insects are gene- 
rally found in his stomach. From its quality of floun- 
dering at the bottom of the rivers, the sturgeon has receiv- 
ed its name from the Germans, the word stoeren signifying 
to wallow in the mud. 
Sturgeons are found both in the European and Ame- 
rican seas. At the approach of spring, they leave the 
deep recesses of the sea, and enter the rivers to spawn; 
and from May to July the American rivers abound with 
them. As they are not voracious fish, they are never 
caught by baits, but in nets composed of small cords, 
and placed across the mouth qf the river, but in such a 
manner, that whether the tide ebbs or flows, the pouch 
of the net goes with the stream. 
Torpedo. {Raja. Ray Fish . PI. 45.) There are about 
twenty species of the ray, of all which the torpedo, 
or electric ray, is the most remarkable, as it possesses 
some very distinguishing peculiarities. In the gene- 
ral structure of its body it has not been found to 
differ materially from the rest of the rays. The electric 
