THE STURGEONS AND STURGEON INDUSTRIES. 
237 
and agrees closely with the dried skin in the museum of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia, the lateral line being indicated in the figure as in the speci- 
men mentioned, as a well-marked canal extending across the wide interspaces between 
the lateral ijlates. The figure reputed to be of this species which was published in the 
plates pertaining to the natural-history volumes of the quarto report on the Fisheries 
Industries of the United States is really that of the adult of the common species. 
The figure intended to represent the common species, var. oxyrhynchus, in the same 
work, is merely the young of the latter, and the figure of A. rubicundus is also from an 
immature young specimen, and far inferior to the beautiful etching of the adult, done by 
Le Sueur himself, and published with the same paper in which he described A. 
hrevirostris. I append the original description of that form in order that the evidence as 
to the distinctness of this singularly well-defined species may be made more accessible. 
“ 2. A. brevirostrum. 
Head large, convex ; snout short, pointed, with a black spot near its extremity ; the 
four beards are flat, disposed in pairs, and placed nearer the nostrils than the end of 
the snout; nostrils near the eyes, though lower, the posterior one larger than the 
anterior one, which is small and almost round; pupil of the eye round, irides golden; 
the length of the head, from the tip of the snout to the end of the operculum is a fifth 
part of that of the body ; body elongated, with five ranges of tubercles ; back with nine 
tubercles and one at the base of the dorsal fin — these plates are prett'y regular, oblong, 
radiated, and surmounted with a sharp keel ; sides with twenty-six tubercles, irregular, 
largest on the anterior part of the body, and oblong on the posterior part, the latter 
presenting a small carina. Sometimes oue remarks between these tubercles the rudi- 
ments of others ; the plates of the abdomen are oblong and small, on the leftside five, 
on the right side three, placed opposite to the center of the former ; before each 
abdominal fin there is a small tubercle ; the skin above is of a blackish color, tinged 
with olive, with oblique black bands, and other corresponding ones, of a paler hue, on 
the sides ; the deep color of the upper parts does Tiot transgress the lateral line formed 
by the tubercles; sides reddish, mixed with violet; abdomen white; the fins are of 
a medium size. 
“ The head, which is remarkable in this species, varies a little iu the varieties which 
follow ; in this it is short in proportion to its breadth, between the eyes it is depressed, 
and iu width 2^ inches, between the auricular orifices [spiracles] 3 inches, from the 
end of the snout to the eye inches, length of the whole head inches ; the auricular 
orifices are situate inches behind the eyes, and near the rim of the bony shield of 
the head; the plates in general of this species are rugose and regularly radiated; 
the skin which appears smooth, is nevertheless furnished with small spinous asperi- 
ties which render it disagreeable to the touch, and there is a kind of regularity 
observable in the dispositions of these spines, which are scattered equally over the whole 
.skin ; the regularity is not perceptible in the A. rubicundus and its varieties, the spines 
of which are more numerous and more serrated. 
“ The individual described was a female; its length 2 feet 9 inches from the tip of 
the snout to the fork of the tail, which was furnished with lozenge-formed plates. 
“ This species is rare. I have been enabled to behold but two specimens. It 
inhabits the Delaware. 
“ First variety. Length 1 foot 7 inches; body with five rows of tubercles, all very 
entire, well defined, and radiated, surmounted with a carina, projecting behind into a 
