128 



EXOC^TUS. 



Body moderately compressed, and, with the head, clothed with scales. 

 Low down on each side of the body a row of cariuated scales, more 

 prominent, and separate from the lateral line. Dorsal and anal fins 

 far behind. Abdominal fishes; but what particularly distinguishes this 

 genus is the very large extent of the pectoral fins, the rays of which 

 are stout and firm; the arm bone or radius of this fin also large. 



GREATER FLYING FISH. 



Elrundo Plinii, Jonston; PI. 18, f. 5, pi. 17, f. 8. 



Mugil alatus, Rondeletius. 



Hirundo, Willougiiby ; Table p. 4, p. 233. 



ExoccBtus exiliens, Cuviek. Tueton's Linnteus. 



" " Yaerell ; British Pishes, vol. i, p. 458. 



The earliest account we possess of the occurrence of a Flying 

 Fish in Britain is by Pennant, who reports that in June, 1765, 

 there was one caught in the River Towy, at a small distance 

 below Carmarthen; whither it had been brought by the tide 

 which flows as far as that town. He had not himself seen it, 

 and as at the time when * Pennant wrote his "British Zoology," 

 it was not understood that there existed more than one species 

 of Flying Fish, except indeed the Flying Gurnard; he therefore 

 saw no reason to doubt that the representation he has given, 

 and which he must have derived from some preserved example, 

 was a correct figure of the fish ; although in fact it is a likeness 

 of the Lesser Flying Fish, ( Exoccctus volitans,) of which we 

 entertain a doubt whether it has at any time been seen in 

 our seas. 



A second example of a Flying Fish is recorded to have been 

 found on the beach at Helford, near Falmouth, scarcely dead, 

 and still fresh from the ocean; and from the dimensions of this 



