The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1891-07-30
HOW FISHES EAT.
Interesting Things for the Boys and
Girls to Know.

The sea urchin has five teeth in five
jawS-one in each jaw-all the five i'm
mediately surrounding the stomach.
The jaws have peculiar centralized
motion. all turning inward and down
ward so that they also act rs feeders.
Snails have teeth on their tongues.
hundreds of them. but, rs if there were
not enough some have them also in
their stomach.
The cuttie-iish. which among other
strange things always walks with its
head downward. does not chew its
food ut all, but masticates with its
gizzard.
The ray, or skate, has mouth set
transyerselv 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 crushes oysters
and other mollusks. like So many nuts.
The carp's teeth are set back on the
pharynX, SO that it may be literally
said TO mastcate its food i'm its throat.
The carp, too. is about the only cud
chewing fish, the coarsely ely-swallowc
food being forced up to these throat
teeth for complete mastication.
Some fishes are absolutely toothless.
like the sucker and the 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 balecn plates, or whalebone.
taking their place. Along the center
OF the palate runs n strong ridge. and
on each side of this there is Il wide de-
presSebn along which the plates are in
serted. These are long and fiat, hang
ing free and ale placed across the
mouth with their sides parallel and
near each other. The base and outer
edge of the plates are of solid whale
bone. but the inner edges are frin..ed,
filing up the interior of the mouth
and acting rs strainer for the food
which consists of the small swimming
mollusks and meduSH or jelly-hshes.
While the Greenland whale has no
teeth, the sperm whale has them in
great quantities on the lower jaw, and
uses them, too, when occasion re-
Quircs. On the other hand the mar
whal very seldom develops more than
one, the left upper canine. 1t makes
up for the lack of numbers by the ex-
traordinary growth attained by this
one tooth. 1t grows out and right for
ward, on a line with the body, until it
becomes IA veritablc 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 by suction, but the shark
has hundreds of teeth set in rows that
sometimes number ten.
Lobstcrs and crabs masticate their
food with their horny jaws, and they
have also sets of teeth in their stom-
achs. where they complete the work of
chewing.
There is one peculiar kind of crab,
called the king or horseshoe crab.
which chews its food with its legs.
This is IN actual fact, the little animal
grinding its motscls between its thighs
before it passes them over to its
mouth.
The ielly-fsh absorbs its food by
wrapping itself around the object
which it seeks to make lis own. The
star-fish is even more accommodating
Fastening itself to the body ii wishes
to feed on, it turns its stomach inside
out aud enwrapS its prey with this use
ful organ.
The clam feeds with a siphon, aud
the oyster with It's beard.-N T.
World.