The Flying Fish 



California Flying-fish fCypsiluriis californicusj 



side of Californlan waters. It is an excellent food-fish, and is 

 sometimes taken by thousands off Santa Barbara. 



Whether flying-fishes really fly, or merely soar or sail, is a 

 question which has been much discussed. Competent observers 

 have asserted positively that they have a real flight, while others, 

 equally competent, maintain that the movement of the flying-fish 

 in the air is unaccompanied by any vibration of the pectoral 

 fins, and is sustained only so long as is possible from the impe- 

 tus given upon emerging from the water. Probably the differences 

 in opinion are largely explained by the fact that the different 

 observers have studied different species. Some species, at least 

 the larger ones, have a real flight; the pectoral fins vibrate, and 

 the flight can be prolonged almost indefinitely. 



We have often seen the fins vibrating just as do the wings 

 of a bird, and Dr. James E. Benedict and others have caught 

 flying-fish in nets when in the air, and have plainly seen the 

 pectoral fins still vibrating. 



Some of the smaller species seem to move quite differently, 

 and it may be that they do not really fly. 



The senior author of this work dissents from this common 

 view expressed above, and does not believe that the pectoral fins 

 have any large power of motion of their own, but that they 

 quiver or vibrate only when the muscles of the tail are in action. 

 He has, with Dr. Charles H. Gilbert, had, at Santa Rosa Island, 

 California, the best possible opportunity to observe the motion of 

 Cypsihtrus californicus. 



The flying-fishes live in the open sea. swimming in large 

 schools. They will "fly" a distance of from a few rods to more 



244 



