STURGEON

(Lat. sturio, from the German stoer, a sturgeon.) The type of a genus of Cartilaginous fishes, with free gills, having the body more or le covered with bony plates in longitudinal rows. The mouth is placed beneath the snout, is small and edentulous; but IS protractile. Soft feelers or cirri are attached beneath the snout. The bodies of the vertebrae retain the primitive condition of an undivided gelatinous cord. The sturgeons ascend the larger rivers of Europe in great abundance, and are the objects of important fisheries. The flesh of most of the species is wholesome and agreeable food; their ova are converted into caviar, and their air-bladder aifords the finest isingla . The sturgeon which is occasionally captured on our east coast is the Accipenser sturio of Linnaeus. See AcciIENSEn. STURIONIANS, Slurionii. (X-2,t.stm\o, a sturgeon.) The name of the family of Cartilaginous fishes of which the sturgeon is the type. [s. 1195]