404 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



Capt. John Bollons, master of the Government steamship Tutanaki 

 and a naturalist of local repute, told me that during his thirty years 

 of service in the South Pacific he had made a considerable study of 

 flying fishes, and that he had often seen the large flying fish {Cypse- 

 lurus melanocerciis) rise as much as 6 feet clear of the water and 

 without again touching it volplane (the captain would not say "fly") 

 a quarter of a mile. On many occasions he had observed them 

 "bank" and var}^ their direction as often as three times on each 

 occasion and as much as 30°-40° during the night. 



An officer of the mercantile marine, whose powers of observation 

 I regard as worthy of consideration, tells me that he has often caught 

 one of the Pacific flj'ing fishes on board his ship, and that they can fly 

 to a deck even to 10 feet from the water level. They usually "fly" 

 on board at night, and he thinks they are attracted by the lights of 

 the vessel. In proof of the latter statement he points to the method 

 of catching them in Polynesia, by means of the flare on a canoe and 

 a dip net. But why does the light attract the fish ? Quien sabe? 



Having quoted some recent literature on this apparently obscure 

 subject, suppose we listen to what Adriaan van Beckel has to say 

 about it. He sailed to South America from Holland nearly 250 

 years ago, and in his "American Voyages" tells many interesting 

 stories about the flora and fauna he studied in his travels. Kecently, 

 my friend, Dr. Walter Roth, of Christianburg, British Guiana, an 

 author well known to students of Indian folklore, translated this 

 charming Dutch work, and the following quotation is from his origi- 

 nal manuscript, which he was good enough to present to the writer. 

 "As regards the flying fish, we saw various shoals raise themselves in 

 flight to the height of about 8 or 10 feet, and cover 50 or 60 paces be- 

 fore they fell again into the water to moisten their wings, and acquire 

 renewed strength against the bonitos (implacable cannibal fish that 

 are always chasing the flying fish and driving them to seek refuge in 

 aerial flights) , who sometimes catch them as they fall or spring out 

 of the water and grab them as they fly. Besides bonitos, the flying 

 fish have yet another enemy, being a certain kind of bird, which 

 shoots down on them as they fly out of the water to save themselves 

 from the bonitos. Our constable brought me the first flying fish 

 which, followed by one of the said birds near by, happened to fall 

 into our ship. It was of the shape, color, and size of a herring, the 

 back a little bit thicker, and the extreme front of the head roundish, 

 like a sea bream, with the wings above the belly — very like a bat's." 



For the naturalist the chief attraction that Niuafoou in the Ton- 

 gan group holds is its "Malau," one of the several species of Mega- 

 podes that have preserved their reptilian habits to the extent of 

 laying their eggs in the sand of the sea shore and allowing the hot 

 sun to do the hatching. When I was in Nukualofa, the capital of 



