4 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
loudly for help. My uncle came run- 
ning to see what the trouble was. I 
told him a big bee would not let me go. 
He laughed and said, “That fellow only 
wanted to see where you are going.” 
I never forgot the supposed attack of 
that large insect. It was a terrible 
thing to me then and made a great im- 
pression. 
Children are often terrified by 
thoughtless persons who tell them that 
bears will get them and snakes will 
eat them. Many false impressions are 
thus created and last for years. Nearly 
every boy will kill a snake unless told 
about their usefulness. The Reptile 
Study Society of America, with head- 
quarters in New York City, and Dr. 
Allen S. Williams, its Director, have 
done much in teaching us about harm- 
less reptiles, especially about those that 
are of benefit to mankind. 
The picture of the dragon fly, just 
out of its shell, was made on the edge 
of Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. With 
my guide I had been to visit an Indian 
Rock Shelter. Returning by way of 
the lake, we discovered the dragon fly 
over a rock. The light being poor, I 
could not get a good snap shot, and 
my tripod was useless as I had lost the 
screw. The good old guide, being a 
man of steady nerves and good judg- 
ment, got down on his bands and 
knees and, bracing himself, told me to 
use his back as an emergency tripod. I 
did not have much faith but tried it and 
the result turned out to be satisfactory. 
Fish Facts. 
BY D. H. DECKER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
There were diving beetles, whirligigs 
and other little water folk in the pond 
where the frogs and toads laid their 
eggs and where the tadpoles developed 
into little frogs and tiny toads, but there 
were no fish. 
Nevertheless there were a little lake 
and a big river near-by, also a creek 
joining the lake and river, and in them 
were abundant fish of many kinds. 
There was the chub to be caught as 
soon as the ice went out, then the suck- 
ers, the pickerel, the perch, the bull- 
head, the bream and the bass among 
which the small-mouth variety was 
plentiful. 
Every one who has caught pike and 
pickerel knows that they have teeth 
but how many, I wonder, know that the 
chub and the sucker possess teeth. We 
sometimes have trouble in removing 
the hook from the mouth of a sucker 
because the mouth is so small, but in 
our attempt to do so we appreciate the 
fact that there are no sharp teeth bor- 
dering the lips as there are in the pick- 
erel, the perch and the pike. No, the 
sucker’s lips are smooth and soft and 
there is not a tooth in sight. Yet the 
sucker has a fully developed set of 
teeth. They are even covered with 
enamel quite like our own. 
That a sucker had teeth was an- 
nounced in our zoology class by one of 
the girls and it amused me much for I 
felt sure that some fisherman had been 
spinning a yarn about the innocent soft- 
mouthed sucker. After class the girl 
maintained that she had seen the teeth 
and would bring a set to school. That 
evening I dug up some fish heads, 
among which was one of a red-fin 
sucker that had weighed some seven 
pounds. I took the head to pieces care- 
fully and found just back of the gills a 
pair of bony arches with bony projec- 
tions along one edge and these projec- 
tions capped with pearl-like enamel. 
They were quite a respectable set of 
teetb and the enamel had worn down 
so that they resembled human teeth. 
They were really in the throat and were 
not located one above and the other 
below the passage so as to mesh to- 
gether. They were both located in the 
upper wall of the passage and worked 
up and down on to the cartilaginous 
arched floor of the passage over which 
all food on its way to the stomach must 
pass and be crushed. 
This incident excited my curiosity as 
to teeth of fish in general and I began 
to investigate such fish as I caught to 
learn what kind of teeth they had and 
where they were carried. I found that 
the chub which also has smooth lips 
carries a set in the same place and man- 
ner as does the sucker, but the indi- 
vidual teeth instead of being flat at the 
ends are sharp and somewhat hooked. 
They are however covered with enamel 
which is pearly and white while that on 
the sucker’s teeth was yellow. I have 
no doubt but that there are other fresh- 
water fish with teeth in the throat but 
I have not found them because of lack 
of opportunity. 
I discovered another surprising thing 
about the fish of our brooks. Any one 
