SWALLOWED BY SHARKS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 102, 26 October 1929, Page 24

SWALLOWED BY SHARKS

JONAH EMULATED BY FISH

Among many rare and startlingly coloured fish recently recoived at the Zoological Society's Aquarium from the coast of Madeira, are a pair of 15in long porcupino fish, states the "Daily Telegraph." They are grotesque, spiny creatures, capable of inflating their bodies with air until they become Bpherical. This habit is probably protective, since when the skin is extended the spines become erectile and proof against the attacks of enemies. „ Porcupine fish aro also able to defend themselves with their teeth, which, being united, form sharp cutting plates. When swallowed, as they are occasionally by large- fish such as sharks, they are able by moans of these teeth to eat their way put of not only the stomach, but of the sides of tho body. As a result it is the giant that dies and the porcupine fish continues on its journey none the worse for its Jonah-like experience . In some parts of the Far East the fish is caught by the native children, blown out, and utilised as a substitute for a football. Tho flesh of the creature is stated to be highly poisonous, and in the ancient days in Japan a common method of committing suicide was to make a meal off a porcupine fish. Some crabs, remarkable for the enormous size of their claws, and known by the name of "bashful crabs," from their habit of seeking protection by burying themselves in the sand, form part of the new collection. Crabs, like most other crustaceans, cast their shells at frequent intervals, and after moulting and before the hardening of the new armour, are helpless against their numerous enemies. In the timo of their need the bashful crabs protect their brethren by taking them under their gigantic claws until tho shells have become hardened. Other specimens collected in Madeiran waters and brought to the Eegent's Park uuder-water zoo, include blue, green, and yollow jazz-fish, scarlet cardinal fish, chocolate and purple Castanet fish, and giant coral red hermit crabs weighing, with their aine-inch long shells, over 21b each. |