172 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



Guide to the Study of Fishes, 1905, p. 157. For 

 a more detailed study, based similarly on first- 

 hand observations, we refer the reader to Hubbs, 

 Papers of the Michigan Academy of Sciences, 

 vol. 17, 1933, pp. 575-611. Voyagers in tropical 

 seas are perhaps more familiar with flying fishes 

 than with any other fishes. And they are often 

 seen in the warm ultramarine-blue waters of the 

 Gulf Stream abreast of our northeastern coast. 

 But none of them are to be expected in the boreal 

 waters of our Gulf except as the rarest of strays. 

 A flying fish could hardly be mistaken for any- 

 thing else, except possible for a flying gurnard 

 (p. 472). But a glance should be enough to tell 

 which of them one has in hand, for the flying 

 fishes have stiff, narrow, pointed wings, only on 

 dorsal fin and a very deeply forked tail, whereas 

 the so-called wings of the flying gurnard are broad, 

 rounded, and extremely flexible; they have two 

 dorsal fins, and a tail fin that is only wealdy con- 

 cave in outline. 



Flying Fish Cypselurus heterurus (R&fmesque) 1810 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2836. 



Distinctive features of flying fishes of the genus 

 Cypselurus, among its tribe, are pectoral fins so 

 long that they overlap the anal fin considerably 

 when laid back; ventrals standing far rearward 

 and nearly or quite half as long as the pectorals; 

 anal fin with its point of origin only a litle forward 

 of the mid-point of the base of the dorsal fin; and 

 second ray of the pectoral fins branched. The 

 species heterurus has a plain gray dorsal fin; it has 

 no teeth on the palatine bone in the roof of its 

 mouth; and the pale edging of the outer margin 

 of its pectoral fins is extremely narrow. The 



number of its scales is distinctive, >p also, as is the 

 number of its vertebrae. But these last two 

 characters are matters for the specialist. 



Color. — Dark blue gray on the back and on the 

 upper part of the sides, silvery lower down on the 

 sides, and below; the dorsal fin is plain gray, the 

 rear margin of the pectorals with a very narrow 

 pale edging. 



Size. — The species heterurus is one of the larger 

 flying fishes, commonly growing to a length of 

 about 1 foot (to the base of the tail fin). 



Occurrence in the Gulf oj Maine. — A flying fish, 

 about 9% inches long to the fork of the tail, seem- 

 ingly of this species but not in good enough con- 

 dition for certain identification, was taken in a 

 trap of the Pond Village Cold Storage Co. at 

 North Truro, on the Massachusetts Bay shore of 

 Cape Cod, on August 4, 1952. This is the only 

 record of one of its tribe, from our Gulf. And 

 the only record of a flying fish from Nova Scotian 

 coastal waters is by Jones, of one taken at Sable 

 Island, in 1859. 



Flying fishes are taken now and then at Woods 

 Hole, the species heterurus perhaps more often 

 than any other, according to published report, 

 but several of the kinds to be expected in the Gulf 

 Stream off our coast resemble one another very 

 closely indeed. So we suggest that if a flying fish 

 should be taken in our Gulf that does not seem to fit 

 the accompanying illustration (fig. 83A) it be 

 forwarded either to the Fisheries Laboratory of the 

 U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Woods Hole, 

 Massachusetts; to the Department of Fishes, 

 U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C; or 

 to the Department of Fishes, Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, to 

 be named. 



Figure 83A. — Flyingfish (Cypselurus heterurus). After Bruun and a specimen from North Truro, Mass. Drawing by 



Jessie Sawyer. 



