ANIMAL BEHAVIOR — WALKER 297 



The earless, or hair, seals {Phoca and related genera) do not 

 have such a flexible body as the sea bears, and their flippers are very 

 short. They are perhaps as adept as the sea bears in the water, but 

 when on land they can only progi-ess by a peculiar bouncing move- 

 ment that they bring about mainly by quickly contracting their 

 bodies so that they actually bounce along with some aid given by 

 their flippers. 



Otters {Lutra) toboggan on their bellies on soft snow and steep earth 



slopes. 



Penquins {Aptenodytes, Pygoscelis, Spheniscus) are especially 

 adapted to a life in the water. However, they regularly go out on 

 the shores and the Antarctic ice. Most of these shores are rocky, 

 and the ice usually has abrupt walls rising out of the water, so that 

 it would be very difficult for the birds to climb out as one might 

 suppose they would have to do. But instead of climbing out in an 

 awkward and inefficient manner, they actually spring out of the 

 water. Coming with considerable speed up through the water, 

 they leap on to the ice or land. As usually seen on such surfaces 

 they are standing in almost a vertical position or slowly waddling 

 along in a manner that to us seems ludicrous. However, they have 

 evolved a remarkable means for escaping rapidly on the ice. They 

 merely throw themselves on to their breasts, use their feet as pro- 

 pellers, dig their toes into the ice and snow, and toboggan rapidly 

 along, even on level surfaces. Speeds estimated to be as much as 

 20 to 30 miles per hour have been observed. When swimming, pen- 

 guins use their modified wings as oars. They steer with their feet. 

 The simile "like a fish out of water" is commonly used to indicate 

 a very inefficient and unsatisfactory procedure. However, there are 

 fish that are entirely at home out of water and that leave the water 

 voluntarily to walk on exposed flats or dry land. Among these are 

 the walking fish or climbing fish (Anabas) of southern Asia and 

 Africa. When the impulse moves, these strange creatures climb up 

 the bank out of the water, take a stroll on the ground and even 

 climb into shrubs and trees. They really walk on the tips of their 

 modified fins. In tliis way they make very satisfactory progress, 

 individual fish being known to have traversed unhurriedly more than 

 300 feet in 30 minutes.'* 



Flying fish (Exocoetus) do not actually fly. They merely gain 

 speed in the water, break through the surface into the air and glide 

 with the aid of their large, winglike pectoral fins which serve as 



planes. 



The young of certain large spiders and the adults of many smaller 

 species make use of a novel type of aerial locomotion. They spin a 



»^5mith, Hugh M., A walking fish. Nat. Hist. (Amer.), vol. 37. pp. 249-252, March 1936. 



