30 TOAD STONES OR BUFONITES. 



teeth ; the largest are much the shape and size of an 

 ordinarj^ broad bean. These, it must be acknowledged, 

 are admirably adapted for the grinding up of hard 

 substances, and although I do not know it for a fact, 

 yet I should consider it more than probable that the 

 gilthead bream would prey upon corals such as are 

 found at the Cape of Good Hope. 



The reader should examine for himself the teeth of 

 the common sea-bream, which are also evidently con- 

 stituted for crushing purposes ; they are not of quite 

 such a handsome pattern as those of the gilthead bream. 

 We find a somewhat similar arrangement in the teeth 

 of the common cat or wolf fish, a fish not unfrequently 

 caught by the North Sea trawlers, and exhibited in the 

 London fishmongers' shops. 



This wolf fish lives in the vicinity of wrecks, and 

 probably tears up the decomposing timbers to get at 

 the boring worms which live in it. Without doubt, the 

 wolf fish lives principally upon whelks, and the whelks 

 are found in the stomachs of the fish in a comminuted 

 state, showing what great power the teeth have in crack- 

 ing them up. 



The study of the structure of the teeth of recent 

 fishes is of the greatest service in getting some idea of 

 the habits of the fossil fishes. 



Our readers who may happen to live in the oolite 

 formation may possibly have had brought to their 

 notice specimens of what the quarrymen call Bufonites, 

 or toad-stones. 



Now, these toad-stones are in reality the teeth of the 

 fossil fish, figured by my father in his " Bridgewater 

 Treatises," Acrodus nohilis. 



In his lectures at Oxford the Dean used frequently, 

 especially when speaking of Stonesfield, near Blenheim, 



