Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1890-06-12
HOW THEY EAT.
The Various Ways in which
Living Creatures Take
their Food.

ing the stomach. The Jaws have a
peculiar centralized motion, and turn
ing inward and downward, so that they
also act as feeders.
Snails have teeth on their tongues,
hundreds of them, but, as if these were
not enough, some haye them also III
their stomach.
The cutie fish, which among other
strange things always walks with its
head downward does not chew its food
at all, but masticates with It's gizzard.
So do geese, fowls, ducks, and indeed
I'LL modern birds. SEEING their food
in their beaks, they swallow it whole, if
grain or seed, and in large pieces if it
be fruit or bread. In that condition it
goes into the gizzard, a powerful mus
Gle with a very tough, horny lining,
which acts as IL mill, being sufficiently
powerful to pulyerze uncookel corn.
70 assist IN the milling process all
grain eating birds swallow little pieces
of gravel, glass, crockery, metal, &C.,
the horny interior Of the gizzard being
sufficiently tough to escape cutting by
these materials. 1t is because Of this
fact that the ostrich has acquired his
reputation Of enjoying ferruginous
dict.
Even when they had teeth birds only
used them to take Their food, depending
upon the gizzarl for mastcatior then
rs now.
Fishes and reptiles use their teeth for
the same purpose, that of taking their
food, but. like the birds, they gulp down
their food unchewed, and unbroken if
possible.
There are, however, exceptions. The
ray, or skate, for instance, has mouth
set transycrsely across its head, the jaws
working with a rolling motion like two
hands set back to back. In the Jaws
are three rows Of fiat teeth, set like a
mosaic pavement, and between these
rolling jaws the fish brushes oysters and
other molusks like SO many nuts.
The carp's teeth are set back on the
pharynx, SO that it may be literally
said to mastcatc it's food in its throat.
The carp, too, Is about the only cuA
chewing fish, the coarsel y swallowed
food being forced up to these throat
teeth for complete mastication.
Some fishes are absolutely toothless,
like the sucker and lamprey others
again have hundreds and hundreds Of
teeth, sometimes so many that they
cover all parts Of the mouth.
The great Greenland whale has no
teeth, its balccn plates, or whaebone,
taking their place. Along the centre
Of the palate runs II strong ridge, and
on each side Of this there Is a wide de
preston along which the plates are
inserted. These are long and fiat,
hang 1g free, and are placed transverse
ly-tlat IS, across the mouth, with their
side parallel and near each other. The
base and outer edge Of the plates are Of
solid whalebone. but. the inner edges
are fringed, filing up the interior of the
mouth and acting as strainer for the
food, which consists of the small SWIM
ming mollusks and medus;s, or Jelly
fishes. This whale rarely, if ever,
swallows anything larger than a her
ring, shoals Of these small creatures be-
ing entlngled in the flores of the
baleen, the water winch does not escape
from the mouth being expelled by the
blow holes. Through the cavity OF this
whales mouth is BIG enough to contain
ships long boat, the gullet is not
larger titan il man S fist. The lower jaw
has neither balecn nor teeth, but has
large, lleshy lips within which the
upper Is received when the mouth is
closed.
While the Greenland whale has no
teeth, the sperm whale has 1scm in
great quantities or the lower jaw, and
uses them, too, when occasion requires
On the other hand, the narwhal very
seldom developes more 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 a line
with the body, until it becomes a veli
table tusk, sometimes reaching the
length of ten feet. Apropos Of tusks,
the elephants are its unduly developed
upper incisors those Of the walrus are
its upper CANNES, and SO arc those of
the wild hog.
Man Is the only animal that has
teeth -incisors, CANNES, and molars--
If an equal height, Man, the ape, and
nearly all ruminants, have thirty.two
teeth. The hog, however, is better Off