TEETH AND FOOD 133 



whilst the ease and rapidity with which the slender body shps 

 through the water make its approach very difficult to detect 

 until too late. The Sieur de Rochefort, writing more than 

 two hundred and fifty years ago, observes in his Natural History 

 of the Antilles: 



"Among the monsters greedy and desirous of human flesh, 

 which are found on the coasts of the islands, the Becune is 

 one of the most formidable. It is a fish which has the figure 

 of the Pike, and which grows to six or eight feet in length 

 and has a girth in proportion. When it has perceived its 

 prey, it launches itself in fury, like a blood-thirsty dog, at 

 the men whom it has perceived in the water. Furthermore, 

 it is able to carry away a part of that which it has been able 

 to catch, and its teeth have so much venom that its smallest 

 bite becomes mortal if one does not have resource at that 

 very instant to some powerful remedy in order to abate 

 and turn aside the force of this poison." 



Sir Hans Sloane (1707) observes that the Barracuda feeds on 

 "Blacks, Dogs, and Horses, rather than on White men, when 

 it can come at them in the water." Pere Labat (1742) records 

 that it prefers a negro to a white man, and further, that it will 

 sooner attack an Englishman than a Frenchman ! His explana- 

 tion, however, that the hearty, meat-eating habits of the 

 Englishman as compared to the daintier feeding of the French- 

 man produces a stronger exhalation in the water to attract the 

 nostrils of the Barracuda, savours more of national prejudice 

 than of scientific accuracy. The normal food of the Barracuda 

 consists almost entirely of other fishes, and it has the interesting 

 and somewhat cold-blooded habit of herding shoals of its 

 intended victims in shallow water, keeping a constant guard 

 over them until its previous meal has been digested and it is 

 once more hungry. 



In many Bony Fishes the teeth at the front end of the jaws 

 are much larger than those at the sides, forming strong fangs 

 or canine teeth, the usual purpose of which is to seize the prey. 

 Occasionally, one or more canine teeth are found on the sides 

 of the jaws, or, as in certain of the Wrasses {Labridae), at the 

 two angles of the mouth. In some of the Gobies [Gobiidae) and 

 Blennies [Blenniidae) there is a pair of very long and curved 

 canines in the lower jaw, situated inside the mouth and behind 

 the ordinary teeth. In the formidable-looking, deep-sea fish 



