GEN. EXOCILUS. THE FLYING-PISH. Ill 



(Sp. 121.) E.volitans. The Common Flying-j5sh. 

 A Flying-fish having been caught in the river Towy 

 below Caermarthen in June 1765, and an account 

 of it having been transmitted to Mr. Pennant, by 

 John Strange Esq., the eminent Naturalist seems to 

 have concluded that it must have been the JE. mli- 

 tans, and has accordingly given a representation of 

 it with short ventrals, so distinguishing it from the 

 next species preceding. This, however, we believe, 

 was merely supposititious. Several additional no- 

 tices have since been published, showing clearly that 

 Flying-fish are sometimes encountered in the British 

 seas. Thus, Dr. Hey sham informs us " that another 

 Flying-fish w^as seen at Allonby last September 

 (I793), by Mr. C. Carlyle when he was bathing; 

 it was near the shore, and upon the surface of the 

 water, and came within a yard of him." (Hutchin- 

 son's Cumberland, i. 32.) A third was seen in July 

 1823, ten miles from Bridge water, in the Bristol 

 Channel, a notice of which was communicated to 

 the Linnsean Society by S. L. Jacob, (Ann. of Phil, 

 xxii. 152) ; and lastly, in the fortieth number of 

 the Journal of the Royal Institution, the following 

 letter appeared. " In going down Channel on the 

 23d of August 1825, with light winds, when off 

 Portland, we were surprised by the appearance of a 

 rather large shoal of what is commonly called the 

 Flying-fish. They being evidently pursued by some 

 one of their numerous enemies, from the frequent 

 and long flights which they took ; but it was im- 

 possible to discover what that enemy was, though 



