1 62 The Under-Water World 



and tubercles which lie flat when the 

 animal is at peace with the world, but 

 stand at right angles like the quills of 

 a porcupine when the animal becomes 

 inflated with fear or anger. Dr. Allan, 

 of Forres, has stated that large sharks 

 sometimes swallow these porcupine fish, 

 and that he has found them floating 

 alive and distended in the stomachs of 

 sharks. The fish have a very powerful 

 dentition, and he relates how on one 

 occasion one of these comparatively small 

 creatures ate its way out of its living 

 prison by biting through not only the 

 stomach but also the thick walls of the 

 body. The shark it was that died. 

 When brought ashore in nets these fish 

 are nearly always spherical in shape, and 

 in this form are used as footballs by the 

 juvenile natives in many parts of Eastern 

 Asia. Allied to the puffer fish are the 

 tropical and sub-tropical trigger fishes, 

 so called from their dorsal fin ray which 



