104 COPEIA 



LEAPING OF A HEMIRAMPHID. 



The synentogiiathous fishes comprise various 

 elongated marine forms, and the remarkable flying 

 fishes which make long excursions through the air 

 supported by their greatly enlarged pectoral fins. It 

 is interesting that the habit of leaping in the air is 

 common throughout the group and therefore, may 

 reasonably be supposed to have been possessed by the 

 ancestors of the flying fishes before the fin develop- 

 ment which has made it pre-eminent among these. * 

 Or in other words, habit has preceded correlated 

 structure in this case. The half-beaks are the mod- 

 ern synentognathi which apparently approach most 

 closely to the ancestors of the flying fish. 



On April 1, off Sandy Key near Cape Sable, 

 Florida, there was an unusually favorable opportun- 

 ity for the writer to watch the leap of a half-beak 

 and a short quotation from his field notes of that 

 date seems worth recording: "A Half-beak (prob- 

 ably Hemiramphus) of perhaps 9 in., skipped over 

 the surface down wind with great speed. Initially 

 it may have been more or less on its side, but towards 

 the end of the leap (which probably exceeded 30 

 yards) it was right side up, its little anterior pector- 

 als extended at right angles, and it appeared to main- 

 tain its impetus by skulling with the tail at intervals 

 as it touched the surface." A surprisingly flying- 

 fish-like performance*. 



J. T. Nichols, 

 New York, N. Y. 



* See Copeia, 1915, No. 19, p. 12-13. 



