A queer contrast to them is the pipe-fish. Pipe-fish have no scales. Their bodies are long and slender, like very slim canes. They get their name from the queer shape of their noses. The pipe-fish’s nose is very slim and hard, and half as long as the fish. People think it looks like a pipe, or cigar. Many fish have very odd noses. Instead of the wedge-shaped head, with the nose and mouth set exactly on the front, the nose may be of a queer shape, and the mouth above or below. The bellows-fish gets its name from a nose shaped almost exactly like a bellows. One kind of sturgeon is called the shovel-fish, because its head is shaped much like a wide shovel. Another sturgeon is called the spoon-bill, because its nose runs out in a long, horny plate, like a spoon, or a paddle. The hammer-headed shark, has its head broadened on each side like a great hammer, with the neck for a handle. One eye is set at the end of each projection. I cannot tell you of all the queer shapes that fish take. If you examine those which you catch in the ponds and rivers, or see brought to market, you will observe that no two kinds are alike. What a narrow, graceful, active fish a trout is! What a queer little fellow is the fish that from his shape you call “a pumpkin seed.” I told you just now, that one ray fish has a very long tail. With it he strikes, and stuns or kills, his prey, or his enemy. Most fish live on animal food. Some fish eat sea-weeds, but most of them prefer other fish, crabs, insects, shell-fish, or other live creatures. Very many fish have some weapon for securing prey, or fighting their enemies. Some fish, depend on their quickness of motion to secure their food or escape enemies. But I will now tell you of some of their weapons. The lower lip of a salmon turns up into a sharp, cutting hook. The sword-fish has a long, hard, sharp, strong horn, which it can drive into the side of a ship. With this weapon it will also kill a man. The sword is formed by some bones of the side of the head, growing out very long and strong. The sword-fish belongs to the ray order. Another ray is the saw-fish. This fish carries on its head a long, flat bone set with great points like the teeth of a coarse saw. With this weapon the saw-fish charges into a shoal of fishes. He maims and wounds a number so that they die or cannot swim away. Then he feasts on them at his leisure. A very queer fish is the torpedo.[30] He is a very big fellow. He can give a shock like electricity, that stuns or kills his prey. There is a large eel which has the same power. They are both much feared by other fishes. But no fish is more feared by other fish, or by men, than the shark. No doubt you have heard of him, with his huge mouth set with great hooked teeth. He can kill almost any creature which is in the sea. While much more could be said about weapons, we must now leave them to take a look at the first pair of fins, or the breast fins.