258 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



(A) There has been much discussion over the 

 FLYING FISHES, whether they show anything 

 that can be called true flight, that is to say, 

 whether their fore-fins strike the air or not. The 

 general answer, for the common flying fish, 

 Exoc&tus volitans, which one sees when one 

 crosses the Atlantic, is that the creature takes 

 a great leap out of the water, using its tail as 

 propeller, and helped perhaps by the momen- 

 tum of a wave; that it holds its pectoral fins 

 taut, without more than slight vibrations, and 

 uses them as vol-planes, not as wings; that it 

 may for mechanical reasons rise in its vol- 

 planing, so that it lands on the deck of a ship ; 

 and that the alteration of the curve of move- 

 ment is in the main involuntary, being due to a 

 slight tilting of the body. We have watched 

 the common flying fishes with care and we 

 never saw anything approaching a stroke with 

 the fore-fins. We have seen them cross in front 

 of the prow of the steamer and, in the course 

 of their curve, come crashing against a port- 

 hole. The leaping is often a desperate attempt 

 to escape from their enemy the tunny. 



In regard to the Flying Gurnard ( Dactyl - 

 opterus) some good observers have described a 

 fluttering of the pectoral fins, which looks like 



