114 



HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. IV 



quently spring at a bound; though, sometimes, the 

 weaker individuals are forced to repeat the effort many 

 times before they are successful. These leaps appear 

 to be accomplished by a sudden jerk which is given to 

 its body, by the animal, from a bent into a straight 

 position". The elastic power of the Gasterosteus acu- 

 leatus, or three-spined stickleback (fig. 32.), is, per- 



32 



haps, still more wonderful : this creature, which is 

 seldom more than two inches long, having been known 

 to leap a foot and a half which is at the rate of nine 

 times their own length in perpendicular height from 

 the water. * 



(134.) Flying seems not altogether denied to this 

 class of animals, if we admit that the spring of the 

 Exoceti, or flying fish (fig. 33.), is, as we have else- 



where t stated our reasons for believing, compounded of 

 both motions. It may be as well, however, to state to 

 the unscientific reader, that these wings are nothing 

 more than large pectoral fins, which exceed the average 

 length of such fins in ordinary fishes so much, that 



Anim. Biog. p, 40. f Classification of Fishes, Vol. I. 



