COMMON FISHES OF MISSISSIPPI RIVER 
149 
of eastern Europe, great fisheries still exist there, and consequently we import the 
greatest share of the caviar that we consume, although we have native sturgeon on 
both seacoasts, in the Great Lakes, and in our large rivers. 
In America we have two general types of sturgeon, which might be distinguished 
roughly as conical-nosed and flat-nosed. All the sturgeons of the Atlantic and Pacific 
coasts (as well as those of Europe and some in Asia) belong to the first group, having a 
relatively short snout, rounded above, though flat underneath (something like a half 
cone), with spiracles on top and having a relatively stocky and rounded tail not 
completely surrounded by protective armor of bony plates. Of this type there are 
five American species — two upon each major seacoast, Atlantic and Pacific, and one 
that we know as the lake sturgeon in the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi Valley. 
The other type is without spiracles and has a shovel-shaped snout and a long, flattened, 
and completely armored caudal peduncle (the “tail,” excluding the tail fin). We 
have seen that the paddlefish has but one near relative and that is found far away in 
a great river of China. So with the shovelnosed sturgeon, its only really close kin 
(of the same or a closely related genus), besides one rare species in the same basin, 
are several species found in central Asia. (Berg, 1904.) 
Sturgeons are as toothless as their ancient comrade, the paddlefish, but they do 
not, like that fish, feed by charging through the water with widespread mouth to 
filter innumerable small organisms. Instead, they are said to lumber about sluggishly, 
thrusting out their very protrusible lips to suck in mud or small organisms that they 
find on or near the bottom. They are not ordinarily addicted to swift waters, and 
if other conditions are found favorable the impounding of river water is not in itself 
unfavorable to them. 
