FISHES—ST0E10NIDAE—ACIPENSER ACUTIROSTRIS. 
355 
The monograph of the sturgeons ( Acipenser ) by Fitzinger and Heckel is replete of informations 
upon the natural history of these fishes. The species of the Old World especially are treated 
of with much detail, while a good deal is yet untold respecting those of the New World. 
The short-nosed sturgeon, so abundant in the waters of California, and described under the 
name of 
ACIPENSER BRACHYRHYNCHUS, Ayres, 
in the Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences, I, 1854, 16, has not fallen 
under our observation. It is so much more to be regretted, as its natural affinities seem to 
bring it nearest to A. transmontanus , which we lack also in good specimens. 
1. ACIPENSER TRANSMONTANUS, Richards. 
Columbia River Sturgeon. 
Syn. —Acipenser transmontanvs, Richards. Faun. Bor. Amer. Ill, 1836, 278, pi. xcvii, fig. 2.— DeKay, New Y. Faun. 
IV, 1842, 347.— Storer, Synops. 1846, 248.— Grd. in Proc Acad. Nat. Sc Philad. VIII, 1856, 137. 
Not in possession of any other specimen but a dried skin about thirty-seven inches in total 
length, we refrain entering into any details as regards its structure. The species is a very 
characteristic one, and which requires to be carefully re-investigated in order to furnish us with 
new data in the determination of the species recently observed along the coast of California, 
within its bays and the lower waters of its rivers. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
No. of 
spec 
Locality. 
When col¬ 
lected. 
Whence obtained. 
Nature of 
specimen. 
Collected by— 
1008 
1 
Columbia river.... 
1855 
Dr. Geo. Suckley...- 
Dried .... 
Dr. Geo. Suckley....... 
2. ACIPENSER ACUTIROSTRIS, Ayres. 
Spec. Char. —Body sub-fusiform in profile. Head slender, upper surface nearly plane, depressed, declivous, with a shallow 
frontal groove. Snout tapering and acute. Mouth large ; lips simple. Barbels filiform, simple, nearer the mouth than the 
apex of the snout. Ten or eleven dorsal shields from the occiput to the anterior margin of the dorsal fin ; twenty-six to twenty- 
seven shields in the lateral series, and nine or ten between the pectorals and the ventrals. All these shields being rather close 
to one another, although not quite contiguous. First dorsal shield united to the cephalic cuirass. 
Syn. —Acipenser acutirostris, Ayres, in Proc. Cal. Acad. Nat. Sc. I, 1854,15.— Grd. in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. VIII, 
1856, 137. 
The museum of the Smithsonian Institution has in preservation a specimen of this species 
about twenty inches in total length, brought home by Lieutenant Williamson’s party; and 
another specimen about thirteen inches long, sent by Dr. Ayres himself. Both of these 
specimens, therefore, are larger than the one originally described by the latter gentleman. The 
snout in the younger specimen is proportionally more slender and more acute still than in the 
older one. The head forms about the fourth of the total length, somewhat more or less 
according to age. A shallow groove may be observed along the middle region of its upper 
surface which is gradually sloping from the occiput to the extremity of the snout. The eyes 
are sub-circular and of moderate development, situated midway between the apex of the snout 
and the posterior edge of the opercle. The barbels are nearly equal in length and inserted 
