Plying fishes and their habits. 501 



than an eighth of a mile, rarely rising more than 3 or 4 feet. * * * 

 Wlien the fish l)egins to fall, the tail tonches the water, when its 

 motion again begins, and with it the apparent motion of the pectorals. 

 It is thus enabled to resume its flight, which it finishes Avith a splash. 

 When in the air it resembles a large dragon fly. The motion is very 

 swift, at lirst in a straight line, but later deflected into a curve. The 

 motion has no relation to the dii'ection of the wing. "When a vessel 

 is passing through a school of these fishes, they spring up before it 

 as grasshoppers in a meadow." 



When a flying fish falls on the deck of a vessel it may spasmod- 

 ically and very rapidly move its pectorals upward and downward, 

 iind such a movement may be made while the fish is " on the wing " 

 and give the appearance of " vibration,*' so often claimed to be 

 observed. This action doubtless adds something to the force of the 

 leap from the water, but it is by no means actual flight. 



It has l)een claimed that fl^'ing fishes are not often to be seen in 

 periods of calm and a smooth sea ; it is when the winds blow strong 

 and the waves roll high that most of them make their appearance. 

 " It is easy to understand how the action of the wind combines favor- 

 ably or otherwise with their flight."" "As any air in strong motion, 

 when it impinges against ol)stacles (a ship's side or Avaves) rises, it 

 raises also the fish, so that this flies over the wave or may come on 

 board the ship. In short, as Professor M()bius proves in detail, all 

 the phenomena observed maj' be fully explained by the coml)ined 

 action of the oblique projection forward and the wind." " Direct!}^ 

 against the wind they commonly fly farther than with the Avind, or 

 when their course and the direction of the wind form an angle 

 together. Most Exocmti which fly against the Avind or Avith the Avind 

 continue, during their Avhole course of flight, in the direction in Avhich 

 they come out of the Avater. AVinds coming laterally upon tlie orig- 

 inal course of the Exocoetl deflect these into their direction." 



Fifi. 2.— Showing how the flight of the fish is influenced by wind current. 



The qualification that the fishes are "• not often to be seen in periods 

 of calm " of course implies that they may be sometimes. Kneeland 

 {1870) specifically asserts that he saAV them rise "out of a perfectly 

 smooth sea." "\Miitman (1880), a much more relial)le obserA^er, also 

 had " often seen great numbers of these fish Avhen the air Avas almost 

 motionless — so still that not a ripple could be discovered on the glossy 

 surface of the water " — and it even seemed to him " that they Avere 



