TEE PHARYNGEAL TEETH OF FISHES. 453 



strong cardiform teeth. This fish is fiiunished with strong 

 molariform teeth in the front part of its mouth, suitable to 

 feeding on molluscs. 



Oblata melanura.* 

 The upper pharyngeal teeth are minute cardiform ones ; the 

 lower pharyngeal teeth are villiform. 



Box salpa.* Fig. 5 (p. 451). 

 Fig. 5 of the illustration has ten horny upstanding gill-rakers, 

 and a rudimentary one on the first branchial arch from the 

 angle to the end of the hypobranchial, with seven on the first 

 epibranchial. The inner surfaces of these are roughened, but 

 not toothed. The inner side of the first, and both sides of the 

 second, third, and fourth arches carry tubercles, but these do 

 not fit into each other closely, and so make only a moderately 

 fine strainer. The upper pharyngeal teeth show as two distinct 

 patches on each side, the line of separation between the upper 

 and lower sections being well-marked ; they carry well-defined 

 cardiform teeth. The lower pharyngeal teeth cover a space 

 over the whole floor of the gullet without showing any line of 

 separation down the middle, but the arches are not united. 

 There is a row of extra large cardiform teeth on the inner edge, 

 with smaller cardiform teeth over the rest of the toothed area. 

 The food of this fish consists largely of seaweeds, as well as 

 the usual diet of crustaceans. 



L ABRIDGE. 

 This is a large family of fishes ; those frequenting the British 

 coast are known as Wrasses. Their lower pharyngeal bones 

 are united into one bone, which materially adds to their 

 strength, and forms a firm foundation for the rounded molar- 

 like teeth, looking something like a piece of a miniature cobble- 

 stone roadway, that are the lower pharyngeal teeth. The upper 

 pharyngeal teeth are generally somewhat similar in shape to 

 the lower, but are set in two patches ; they are reinforced by 

 two bony condyles or projections from the under side of the 

 basi-occiput, materially adding to the strength of the bite, and so 



* Both these fishes occur in the Mediterranean. 



