512 FLYING FISHES AND THEIR HABITS. 



Thierleben) ? Against this power other authors have pronounced 

 and denied the fishes any aptitude for aerial progression. On the one 

 hand, Signor Le Bianco, of the zoological station of Naples, informed 

 W. L. Calderwood (1889) that " it is met with in the bay at a depth 

 of from 20 to 60 meters, say 10 to 30 fathoms, but is never seen on the 

 surface." (Le Bianco, in an article of his own (1888) had indicated 

 it as scarcely pelagic (raramente pelagico). On the other hand, some 

 reliable men and good naturalists have testified to their ability to 

 emerge from the water and progress for short distances through the 

 air. Neglecting all observations recorded more than half a century 

 ago, comparatively recent notices confirm old statements, to some ex- 

 tent at least. 



Richardson, the best informed ichthyologist of the middle of the 

 last century, also especially testified to their aerial excursions 

 " They are able to rise from the water and fly through the air like 

 the Exocoeti or flying fishes already mentioned. With such force 

 does the Dactylopterus pursue its flight that it will spring upon the 

 deck of a ship of war, and it has been known to strike a sailor on the 

 forehead and knock him down." 



Moseley, the naturalist of the great Challenger Expedition, attested 

 that '' whilst out in a boat collecting animals amongst the gulf weed " 

 he saw Dactylopterids around him and " watched these little flying 

 fish fly along before the boat at a height of about a foot above the 

 water for distances of 15 or 20 yards," and he " chased them and 

 caught one or two with a hand net amongst the weed." 



Moseley believed that the Dactylopterid had a somewhat different 

 flight from the Exocoetids. He had " never seen any species of 

 Exocoetus flap its Avings at all during its flight. These fish merely 

 make a bound fi'om the water," but he believed he could " not be 

 mistaken " in the conviction that he had " distinctly seen species of 

 flying gurnets move their wings rapidly during their flight. I 

 noticed," says he, " the phenomenon especially in the case of a small 

 species of Dactylopterus with beautifully colored wings, which 

 inhabits the Sargasso Sea. Whilst out in a boat collecting animals 

 amongst the Gulf weed, these small flying gurnets were constantly 

 startled by the boat and flew away before it, and as they did so 

 appeared to me to buzz their wings very rapidly. Their mode of 

 fliglit seemed to me to be closely similar to that of many forms of 

 grasshoppers, which can not fly for any great distance, but raise 

 themselves from the ground with a spring and, eking out their 

 momentum as much as they can by buzzing their wings, fall to the 

 ground after a short flight. 



" Doctor Mobius, Avho similarly watched the flight of a species of 

 flying gurnards, nuiintains that neither form of fl.ying fish flap 

 their Avings at all during flight. I no not consider the question as 



