Chapt. hi. "Sucking up" closely observed. 31 



that much of it must sink to the bottom before they could 

 get it, I watched them taking it off the sandy bottom. 

 They sucked it up with great rapidity, so that it wanted 

 close observation, but I watched them very carefully for 

 some time, and distinctly saw the upper lip thrust out from 

 its socket, and brought down over the rice, and then there 

 was a clear act of suction for each grain, though they were 

 taken up one after another nearly as fast as a fowl picks 

 up grain. The fish the while were not swimming level in 

 the water, but with their tails just enough inclined up- 

 wards to allow the pectoral fins to work without touch- 

 ing the bottom. The pectoral fins were so near the bot- 

 tom that the motion contributed to the water by each vi- 

 bration stirred up the fine sand, but they did not touch 

 the bottom. By the suction from the mouth however I 

 could not perceive that any sand at all was disturbed. 

 They picked up the single grains of rice clean, and clever- 

 ly, and quickly. 



The Mahseer then is an accomplished bottom feeder. 



The means by which the large crabs, shells and other 

 hard substances are reduced to a mass of small pieces by 

 the Mahseer is doubtless the formidable set of teeth in the 

 throat. Every carp *has teeth in its throat, placed so far 

 down that they are not visible in the mouth; but the teeth* 



* These pharyngeal or throat teeth are not set in sockets like humaii 

 teeth, but are continuations of the pharyngeal bones. Unlike other teeth 

 in fish, instead of dentine, they have a coating of enamel, which is con- 

 tinued to their base. There seems to be no provision for renewing them 

 in case of loss, no adjoining row of teeth as in the shark, no second tooth 

 below as in the human being; and in an instance in which I noticed 

 that two were wanting on one side, the place where they should be was 



