FISHES. DAS: 
water, they need no eyelids and no tear-apparatus, and 
accordingly have none. For protection of the eye the 
skin is continued over it, but it is so thin that the light 
is readily transmitted through it. The organs of the 
sense of smell are better developed than those of any 
other sense, and its smell is therefore acute, undoubtedly 
to aid it in the search of its food. Its sense of taste, on 
the other hand, is dull, probably because, for the most 
part, the food is swallowed whole, and is not detained 
long in the mouth. 
359. Fishes are very voracious, and their food is most- 
ly animal, few, comparatively, feeding upon vegetables. 
Some live on the soft-bodied animals floating in great 
numbers in the sea, of which I shall treat in another part 
of this book. Others live on shell-fish, and animals that 
are covered with a hard crust, such as lobsters, crabs, 
etc. Many fishes in fresh water live on worms and the 
grubs of insects. Then, too, fishes feed to a large extent 
on fishes that are smaller than themselves. In this re- 
spect such fishes have a resemblance to the carnivorous 
Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles. It is stated that, “at a 
lecture delivered before the Zoological Society of Dublin, 
Dr. Houston exhibited, as ‘ a fair sample of a fish’s break- 
fast,’ a Frog-fish two and a half feet long, in the stomach 
of which was a Codfish two feet in length. The Cod’s 
stomach contained the bodies of two Whitings of ordi- 
nary size; and the Whitings, in their turn, held the half- 
digested remains of many smaller fishes too much broken 
up to be identified.” 
360. The mouth of each fish is adapted to its mode of 
gaining a livelihood. Some species have no teeth, but in 
most fishes there are several rows of them. They are 
commonly not confined to the jaws, but are also on the 
tongue, the palate, ete. Most have teeth merely for hold- 
ing the food and passing it into the throat, while in oth- 
ers there are teeth for cutting or tearing; and in such as 
Loe) 
live on shell-fish there are teeth for crushing. 
