-MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 583 



sheet with these claws right up over theii" backs to the root of their eyes, so 

 that they are nearly hidden under the sheet. They were observed hiding in 

 this way when brought aboard alive. 



Bat -veau Colombo and Rangoon the passage was uneventful and beautifully 

 smooth, and the occasion was utilised to observe the flight of the flying fish, 

 about which so many erroneous notions prevail. The opportunities for 

 observing its flight were almost ideal — plenty of fish, a calm sea, a not very 

 fast ship and a coign of vantage — the paddle-box— to observe from. By far the 

 commonest flying fish of these seas — Exoccefua eiiolans — is rather small, averag- 

 ing between six and seven inches in extreme length, but growing somewhat 

 larger. They are stout, muscular fish, very dainty to eat, .md feeding mostly 

 on the small forms (if surface-swimming Crustacea. They are protectively 

 coloured — dark blue above fading into lighter shades below. Like their 

 near allies the gar fish, hemiramphus, which have a very similar habit 

 of leaping from the water and rushing at great speed along the surface 

 with merely the lower part of the tail and the hinder fins immersed, 

 the flying fish, exocoetus, have the lower surface of the body flattened — 

 evidently to make immersion more difficult and the act of springing from 

 the water easier — and in both fish the lower lobe of the tail is consi- 

 derably prolonged downwards. The anterior pair of fins of the flying 

 fish are greatly enlarged and fan-like, and attached to the body by fairly 

 strong, well-developed muscles, easily seen on pulling off the fish's skin. If 

 their flight be followed witb a pair of l>inoculars, it will be seen that, as they 

 leave the water, the wings are for a second or two very rapidly vibrated ; 

 that the fish, having thus acquired a considerable impetus, soars along on its 

 outspread wings, sometimes altering its direction of Pight even to a right 

 angle or more without touching the water ; that when its speed diminishes 

 it descends and either flops back into the water with a splash, or renews its 

 flight by curving its body, so that the lower lobe of the tail and the hinder 

 pair of fins rest on the water, steady it, and allow it to again vibrate its 

 wings sufficiently rapidly to regain speed and its soaring flight. On one 

 occasion a fish was observed to renew its flight, by alighting for a second on 

 the water, no fewer than seven times. The speed at which Hying fish can 

 travel is considerable — certainly over ten miles an hour, probably nearly 

 fifteen. The distance to which they can fly by alternately alighting on the 

 water and then soaring along, may considerably exceed one hundred and 

 fifty yards, and it appears to make little difference to them whether they sail 

 up a light wind, down or across it, or whether it be a calm. 



After entering the Andaman Sea, to the east of the Andaman and Nicobar 

 Islands, a line of soundings and observations of deep-sea temperatures was 

 made. It was stated that the temperature of the deepest parts of the Indian 

 seas, a little over 2,0u0 fathoms, was only slightly over freezing point. In the 

 Andaman Sea, however, at a depth of 1,500 to 1,700 fathoms, the temperature 



