164 
HUSO. 
Sturgeon, {Acipenser huso, Linnaeus.) A larger fish than the 
Common Sturgeon, having been often found of the length of 
twenty-five feet; general shape the same; colour dusky, or 
blackish blue above, silvery on the sides and abdomen, with 
a tinge of rose-colour on the latter; general appearance 
smoother than in the Common Sturgeon, the dorsal tubercles 
being less protuberant, and those along the sides much smaller, 
and in some specimens of a very advanced growth altogether 
wanting; mouth much larger than in the A. sturio, with thick 
crescent-shaped lips; skin smooth and viscid. Native of the 
Northern, (Black,) and Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, 
migrating from them into the adjoining rivers; found more 
particularly in the Volga and Danube.” — (Shaw’s “General 
Zoology,” vol. v, p. 375, pi. 159.) 
Another description is, — Snout very obtuse, shorter than the 
diameter of the mouth, but like the Common Sturgeon, sub- 
ject to variation in this respect. Eyes very small. Body thick, 
with five rows of plates; the fins small. As the fish attains 
its full growth these plates often drop off, so that none appear. 
I find among my notes, that, in company with Mr. Yarrell, 
I had an opportunity of seeing the head and tad, without the 
body, of a Sturgeon, the snout of which was very short, fiat, 
and bent upward, as that of the Huso is represented in the 
very rough plates of the old writers; but as Mr. Yarrell has 
not referred to this species in his work on British fishes, I 
conclude that he did not suppose the evidence of its being the 
Huso sufficient to authorise his classing that species among the 
acknowledged fishes of our seas. 
