312 FISH OUT OF WATER 



his squinting optics. So completely adapted is he for this 

 amphibious long-shore existence, that his big eyes, unlike 

 those of most other fish, are formed for seeing in the air 

 as well as in the water. Nothing can be more ludicrous 

 than to watch him suddenly thrusting these very movable 

 orbs right out of their sockets like a pair of telescopes, and 

 twisting them round in all directions so as to see in front, 

 behind, on top, and below, in one delightful circular sweep. 



There is also a certain curious tropical American carp 

 which, though it hardly deserves to be considered in the 

 strictest sense as a fish out of water, yet manages to fall 

 nearly half-way under that peculiar category, for it always 

 swims with its head partly above the surface and partly 

 below. But the funniest thing in this queer arrangement 

 is the fact that one half of each eye is out in the air and 

 the other half is beneath in the water. Accordingly, the 

 eye is divided horizontally by a dark strip into two distinct 

 and unlike portions, the upper one of which has a pupil 

 adapted to vision in the air alone, while the lower ia 

 adapted to seeing in the water only. The fish, in fact, 

 always swims with its eye half out of the water, and it can 

 see as well on dry land as in its native ocean. Its name is 

 Anableps, but in all probability it does not wish the fact to 

 be generally known. 



The flying fish are fish out of water in a somewhat 

 different and more transitory sense. Their aerial excur- 

 sions are brief and rapid ; they can only fly a very little 

 way, and have soon to take once more for safety to their 

 own more natural and permanent element. More than 

 forty kinds of the family are known, in appearance very 

 much like English herrings, but with the front fins 

 expanded and modified into veritable wings. It is fashion- 

 able nowadays among naturalists to assert that the flying 

 fish don't fly ; that they merely jump horizontally out of 



