FISHES. 211 



structure, situation, or mode of attachment — offer more various 

 and striking modifications than do those of any other class of 

 animals."* ' 



The teeth of some fishes, as the true Red Mullet, are so 

 fine and close set, that they may be felt rather than seen, and 

 have been compared to plush or velvet. Others, a little coarser, 

 resemble the hairs of a fine brush ; when stronger, they are 

 like stiff bristles ; and some are bent like hooks and barbed. 

 Some of those in th.e Pike are shaped like the canine teeth of 

 carnivorous quadrupeds -, and some molar teeth are elliptical, 

 oblong, square, or triangular. To such teeth, those of the 

 Sharks {Figs. 185, 186) shaped obviously for piercing, cutting, 

 and holthng, offer an interesting contrast. 



Fig. 185. Fig. 18G. 



Teeth of Shark {Notidanus.) Teeth of Shake {Odontaspu.) 



Nor is the variety in point of numbers less than that of 

 form. The Lancelet, the Sturgeon, and the Pipe-fish ai'e 

 without teeth. The Wolf-fish, on the contrary, has a mouth 

 so paved with teeth that it breaks shells to pieces, and lives on 

 the contained animals, separating the one from the other so 

 effectually, that the food, without further preparation, is 

 ready to be consigned to the stomach. " In all fishes the teeth 

 are shed and renewed, not once only, as in mammalia, but fre- 

 quently, during the whole course of their lives. "f 



At the back part of the mouth, the upper end of the guUet 

 (cesophagus) is expanded and forms a cavity known as the 

 pharynx. In many species of fish this is furnished with 

 teeth, and it becomes an interesting question — what can be 

 their use in such a situation ? A recently-swallowed fish, 

 taken from the stomach of a Pike, mav show marks of the 



* Owen's Odontography, page 1. It is from this splendid work and 

 the more recent Lectures of the same emuient author, that our information 

 respecting the teeth is derived. 



t YarrelL 



P 



