The . Hiftory of A N I M A L S. 297 
the hinder part of the body; on it’s under furface they are fituated behind the anus: 
the pedoral fins have a very ftrong bone at their anterior part: the ventral fins are fitin¬ 
ted low, and near the anus; the pinna ani is fituated in the midway between the 
anus and the beginning of the tail: there is only one fin on the back 3 the tail is bifid, 
and it’s upper fegment is longer than the under: the appendages to the pylorus are nu¬ 
merous; the air-bladder is fimple ; the inteftines have only one volution, and the fpina 
dorfi is continuous. 
It is caught in the Adriatic, and in forne other feas, and in moft of the large rivers in 
Eurooe and Afia; we fometimes take it in the Thames, but it is not fo frequent there 
as in many other larger rivers in Europe : all the Ichthyological writers have defcribed it. 
Athenasus calls it ’Owmc®-* and ’Ajww rs<n<& ; Plautus, Cicero, Martial, and Pliny, and 
moft of the old Latin writers, Accipenfer; Gefner, Accipenfer, Aquipenfer, and Stu- 
rio; and Aldrovand, Jonfton, Willughby, and Ray, Sturio; Salvian, Storio live 
Silurus; Athenasus, Gallus Rhodios, Ifidore, Sus. The Italians call it Sturione ; and we, 
the Sturgeon. 
The Greek writers have mentioned a fifh under the name ’ExoJ/ and 'Oxo^-, from 
whom Ovid, Pliny, and many other of the Latins have mentioned Elops and He- 
lops, as the name of another fifh ; but it is certain, from Pliny, that this was the fame 
fifh, and that Ariftotle and iElian call our Sturgeon by this name; though we had 
loft the connexion between the name and the fifh for many ages. 
Accipenfer tuberculis carens . 3 Ct)t 
The fmooth-bodied Accipenfer . 
This is a larger fifh than the fturgeon ; it grows to twenty-four feet in length, and 
is thicker, in proportion, than that fpecies: the head is large; the roftrum is extreamly 
long, and there are eight beards or cirri under it : the mouth is very fmall, in pro¬ 
portion to the fize of the fifh, and there are no teeth in it: the eyes are large ; their 
iris is grey, and their pupil of a deep black; the noftrils have each a double aperture, 
and are very confpicuous: the body is fomewhat depreffed ; the back is lefs elevated 
than in the former fpecies, and is rounded; the belly is flat; the whole body is 
fmooth; there is no appearance of thofe tubercles, which are fo confpicuous on the 
common fturgeon : the back is of a deep black, and the fides grow paler, till they ap¬ 
proach the belly, which is yellow : there is only one fin on the back, and that {lands 
very backward toward the tail; there are, befide this, the two pedoral fins, the two 
ventral fins, and the pinna ani, ail fupported by cartiiages inftead of bony rays. 
This fpecies is more frequent in the Danube than in any other part of the world, 
fo far as is yet known ; but even the accounts, given from fuch as have been caught 
there, have divided it, as it were, into three fpecies: it was not unknown to the old 
Latin writers. Pliny calls it Mario ; Gefner, Jonfton, and Charleton, Hufo. Wil¬ 
lughby and Ray, Hufo Germanorum ; Rondelet, and fome others, Exos pifcis five 
Ichthyocolla pifcis; other authors, as Jonfton, Rondelet, Willughby, Ray, and the reft 
who copy from thefe, have defcribed it a fecond time as a diftind fifh, under the nmae 
of Ichthyocolla ; and a third time aunder that of Antacseus and AntacaeusvBorifthenis; 
the Greeks have alfo defcribed it under this name as, ’A vtohou&, ./Elian and Strabo both 
mention it; but the foie difference, as is evident from their own accounts, between the 
Hufo and the Antacasus is, that one came from the Danube, and the other from the 
Borifthenes. The Ichthyocolla or Ifinglafs of the (hops, famous as an agglutinant, and 
ufed alfo in the fining of wines, is the produce of this fifh: it is made by boiling down 
the membranaceous parts of it to a jelly, 
S (f U ALUS. 
H E foramina of the gills are five on a fide, and are fituated in a longitudinal 
A direction from the Tides of the head down to the pedoral fins: the head is of a 
deprefied form ; the body is oblong, and is rounded or angulated, and the fkin is 
rough : the eyes ftand not on the top, but at the fides of the head ; the tail is bifid, 
and the upper part of it is longer than the under: the mouth is ufually tranfverfe, 
and in the under part of the roftrum, not at it’s extremity. 
4 U 
The 
