EATING THE EATER.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15119, 4 January 1922, Page 8

EATING THE EATER.

FISH THaJP*PUFFS' ITSELF UP

Sharks are popularly supposed to prey indiscriminately upon all other creatures that swim, but this view is contradicted by Mr. Frederick O’Brien in his “White Shadows in the South Seas.” ' According to him there is one species of fish that the shark never eats, unless he is absolutely famishing, and then' the penalty he pays is a terrible: one.

This fish is called by naturalists diod'on antenatus, and he gets the better of the shark in a curious manner.

• He can blow himself up, taking in air -and water, until he becomes bloated,

He can, at will, cause liis skin to bristle with poison thorns, and he secretes, and can eject, an acrid carmine fluid that makes a permanent stain.

Despite all these defences, if a shark, ravenous from hunger, is fool enough to heed no warning and swallow diodon, the latter puffs himself up and eats his way clean through the shark to liberty; leaving the giant fish, riddled, leaky, and doomed to a lingering but inevitable death.