1'ISHES. 227 



to number, form, substance, 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 the 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 (Fig. 185, 186) shaped obviously for piercing, 

 cutting, and holding, offer an interesting contrast. 



Fig. 185. Fig. 186. 



TEETII OF SHARK (Notidanus.) TEETH os 1 SHARK (Odontaspis.} 



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

 form. The Lancelot, the Sturgeon, and the Pipe-fish are 

 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 frequently, during the whole course of their lives."! 



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

 (ccsopliagus) 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, may show marks of the 



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

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

 respecting the teeth is derived. 



f Yarrell. 



