158 BLENNIOIDS. 



read before the Royal Society, in 1774,(1) he observes that the teeth 

 of fishes which subsist chiefly on animal matter must vary according as 

 their food maybe common soft fish or shell-fish. " Such fish as live 

 on the first kind have, like the carnivorous quadrupeds and birds, no 

 apparatus for mastication, their teeth being intended merely for catch- 

 ing the food and fitting it to be swallowed. But the shells of the second 

 kind of food render some degree of masticatory power necessary to fit it 

 for its passage either into the stomach or through the intestines ; and 

 accordingly we find in certain fish a structure suited to the purpose. 

 Thus the mouth of the wolf-fish is almost paved with teeth, by means 

 of which it can break shells to pieces, and fit them for the oesophagus 

 of the fish, and so effectually disengage the food from them, that 

 though it lives upon such hard food, the stomach does not diflfer 

 from that of other fish." 



But in order to secure the capture of the shell-fish, the teeth of 

 the wolf-fish are not all crushers ; some present the laniary type, 

 with the apices more or less recurved and blunted by use, and consist 

 of strong cones spread abroad, like grappling hooks, at the anterior 

 part of the mouth. A description of these teeth, illustrated with figures, 

 is given by Mr. Andre in a volume of the Philosophical Transac- 

 tions (2) subsequent to that in w^hich they are noticed by Hunter ; 

 and a diminished view of the mouth of the Wolf-fish will be found in 

 Mr. Yarrell's British Fishes. (3) 



The oral dentigerous bones, viz : the intermaxillaries, preman- 

 dibulars, palatines and vomer, are figured of their natural size, in 

 their natural relative position and separately, in Plates 60 & 61 of 

 the present work. The pharyngeal bones support much smaller 

 conical and pointed teeth. 



The intermaxillary teeth, (PI. 60, fig. 1, and PI. 61, fig. 2 a a) 

 are all conical, and arranged in two rows ; there are two, three or 

 four in the exterior row, at the mesial half of the bone, which are 

 the largest ; and from six to eight much smaller teeth are irregularly 

 arranged behind. There are three large, strong, diverging laniaries 

 at the anterior end of each premandibular bone, (PI. 61, fig. 1), and 

 immediately behind these an irregular number of shorter and smaller 



(1) Philos. Trans, vol. Ixiv, p. 310. (2) lb. vol. Ixxiv, p. 274. (3) Vol. 1, p. 248. 



