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, 

 Exocoetus 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 momentum 

 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 movement 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 



