Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1891-07-11
now FIsH EAT.
Interesting Things for the Boys and Girls
TO Know.

Interesting Things for the Boys and Girls
TO Know.
The sea urchiu has FIVE teeth In FIVE
jaws-one in each jaw-all the FIVE i'm
mediately surrounding the stomach The
jaws have a peculiar centralized motion,
all turning inward and downward, so that
they also act as feeders.
Snails have teeth in their tongues, hum
dreds of th6m, but, as If these were not
enough some have them also in their
stomach.
The cutte-fsh, which among other
strange things always walks with its
head downward, does not chew its food at
all but masticates il with its gizzard.
The ray, or skate, has a mouth set trans.
versely around its head, the jaws working
with rolling motion like two hands set
back to back. In the jaws are three rows
of fat teeth, set like a mosaic pavement,
and between these rolling jaws the fish
brushes oysters and other molusks, like 50
many nuts.
The carp's teeth are set back on the
pharyuy, SO that it may be literally said to
masticate its food in its throat The carp,
too, is about the only cud-chewing fish, the
coarseley food being forced up TO these
throat teeth for complete mastication.
Some fishes are absolutely toothless, like
the sucker and the hamprey; others again
have hundreds and hundreds of teeth.
sometimes so many that they cover all
parts of the mouth
The great Greenland whale las no
teeth, its balen plates, or whalebone, tax.
ing their place Among the center of the
palate runs a strong ridge and on each
side of this there is a wide depression
along which the plates are inserted These
are long and fiat, hanging free and are
placed around the mouth with their sides
parallel and near each other. The base
and outer edge of the plates are Of solid
whalebone, Jut the inner edges are firing
ed, filling up the interior Of the mouth
and acting as strainer for the food,
which consists Of the small swimming
mullusks and meduse or jelly-fshes.
While the Greenland whale has no teeth,
the sperm whale has them in great quaint
tiles on the lower jaw. and uses them, too,
when occasion requires. On the other
hard the narwhal very seldom develops
more than one, the left upper canine. II
max up for tae lack OF numbers by the
-4ordinary growth attained 10y this one
tooth. 1t grows out and right forward, on
q line with the body, until it becomes a
yeritabe tusk, sometimes reaching the
length Of ten feet
The river dolphin Of South America has
222 teeth.
The sturgeon is toothless, and draws in
its food hy suction, but the sharks has
hundreds Of teeth set in rows that some
time, number ten.
HOLSTERS and crabs masticate their food
with their horny jaws. and they nave also
sets Of teeth in their stomach, where they
complete the work ofchewing.
There is a particular kind Of crab call.
ed the king or horseshoe crab, which chew,
/ its food with its legs This is an actual
( fact, the little animal grinding its morselt
between its tights before it passes them
/ over TO its mouth.
! The jeilpy fish absorbs its food by wrap
ping itself around the object which II
seeks o make it, own
/ The star.f.h is even more accommodating
Fastening TO the body il wishes to iced on
/ it turns is stomach inside out and en-
wraps its prey with this useful organ