Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1890-05-05
HOW THEY TAKE FOOD.
Tho Various Ways In Which Living Great
ureS Eat.

1aw--all the five immediately surround
ing the stomach. Tho jaws have a po-
culiar centralized motion, all turning
inward and downward so that they also
act Is feeders.
Snails havc teeth on their tongues,
hundreds of them, says tho San Fran
cisco Chronicle, but, as if these wore not
enough, some have them also in their
stomach.
The cuttlcfish, which, among other
strange things, always walks with it's
head downward, does not chow it's food
at all, but masticates with it's gizzard.
So do geese, fowls, ducks, and indeed all
modern birds. Selling their food in
their beaks they swallow it whole, if
grain or seed, and in large pieces if it be
fruit or broad. In that condition it eocs
into tho gizzard, q powerful muscle with
very tough, horny lining, which acts as
mill, being sufficiently powerful to
pulverize uncooked corn. To assist in
tho milling process all grain-cating
birds swallow little pieces of gravel,
glass, crockery, metal. ETC., the horny
interior of the gizzard being sufficiently
tough to escape cutting by these mate
rails. 1t is because of this fact that tho
ostrich has acquired his reputation of
enjoying ferruginous diet.
Even when they had teeth birds only
used them to take their food, depend-
ing upon the gizzard for mastication
then as now.
Fishes and reptiles use their teeth for
tho same purpose, that of taking their
food, but, like tho birds, they gulp down
their food unchewcd, and unbroken if
possible.
There are, however, exceptions. The
ray, or skate, for instance, has a mouth
set transversely across it's heal, tho jaws
working with a rolling motion like two
hands set back to back. In the laws are
three rows Of fat teoth, sot like mosaic
pavement, and between these rolling
Jaws the fish brushes oysters and other
molBusks like so many nuts.
Tho carp's teeth are set back on the
pharynx, so that it may be literally said
. to masticate its food in its throat. Tho
carp, too, is about the only cud-chewing
fish, the coarsely swallowed food being
forced up to. these throat teeth for COM
plete mastication.
Some fishes are absolutely toothless,
like the sucker and lamprey; others
teeth sometimes so many that they COW.
or all parts of tho mouth.
Tho great Greenland whale has no.
teeth, its baleen plates. or whalebono,
taking their place. Along the center
OF the palate runs strong ridge, and on.
each side of this there is wido depres-.
sion, along which the plates are inserted.
Whifo the Greenland whale has no
teeth, the sperm whale has them in,
great quantities. on the lower jaw, and
uses them, too, when occasion requires.
On the other hand, the narwhal very
seldom develops moro than one, the left
upper canine. 1t makes up for the lack
OF number by the extraordinary growth
attained by this one tooth. 1t grows
out and right forward, on line with
the body, until it becomes a workable
tusk, sometimes reaching the length Of
ten feet. Apropos of tusks, the elo-
plants. arc its unduly developed upper
incisors; those of the walrus are its up-
per CANNES, and so are those of tho wild
hog.
Man is tho only animal that has teeth
-incisors, CANNES and molars-of an
equal height. Man, the apo, and nearly
all ruminants, have thirty-two teeth.
The hog, however, is better eff than
this, and has forty-four. So have tho
opossum and mole. The river dolphin
of South America lays far beyond this,
however, having no less than 222 teeth.
Tcoth arc not part Of the skeleton, but
belong to tho appondagos, like skin and
hair.
The sturgeon is toothless and draws in
its food by suction, but tho shark has
hundreds of teeth set in rows that some
times number ten.
HOLSTERS and crabs masticate their
food with their horny jaws, but they
have also sets Of teets in their stom-
achs, where they complete tho work Of
chewing. But thcro is ono peculiar
kind u crab, called the king or horse
shoe crab, which chews it's food with it's
logs This is an actual fact, tho little
III imal grinding it's morsels between its
thighs before it passes them over so its.