WEAPONS OF FISHES. 



251 



Common Weever 

 (Trachmus Draco). 



The strong spines of the dragon- weever, a small silvery fish 

 frequently occurring on our shores, 

 are capable of inflicting such trouble- 

 some and painful wounds that they 

 are the objects of the fisherman's 

 dread; and the lancet-like moveable 

 spines, not unlike the very large 



thorns of the rose-tree, with which the tropical surgeon-fishes 

 (or Acanthuri) are armed on each side of the tail, inflict a most 

 terrible gash on the hand of anyone so imprudent as to come 

 within their reach. 



Several of the siluridse, or catfish, use the sharp spine 

 of their dorsal fin (a), in a very peculiar manner, for the ob- 

 taining of their food. Getting beneath the 

 fish they have selected for their meal, they 

 suddenly rise and wound it repeatedly in 

 the belly. Michaux several times observed 

 this ingenious piece of strategy in the clear 



Waters Of the Ohio. Dorsal fin of Catfish. 



One of the most formidable of the numerous spine-armed 

 fishes (of whom, not to tire the reader, I have mentioned but a 

 few) is beyond all doubt the sting-ray. Its weapon is a long 

 bony and rather flattened process, placed on the tail, of great 

 hardness, and very sharp, the sides being armed with numerous 

 barbs, like the head of an Indian spear. Whether the fish, at 

 the time of inflicting a wound with this instrument, discharges 

 some poisonous liquid, or whether the laceration of the wound 

 indisposes it to heal kindly, is still a matter of doubt ; but so 

 much is certain, that the sting of these rays has often been 

 attended with fatal consequences, and that the pain it causes 

 is such as to deprive the sufferer of consciousness. 



The fishes rely chiefly upon their dental apparatus for the 

 capture of their prey, as they have neither feet nor hands to 

 lay hold of it ; and as the creatures they pursue through the 

 waste of waters are generally of a slippery nature, we find their 

 teeth, by their sharpness, position, and numbers, most admirably 

 adapted for their seizure. 



In many of the larger fishes these instruments of destruction 

 are as formidable as those of the lions or tigers of the dry land. 

 Thus the .shark will at one grip cut a man in two, swallowing 



