138 VERTEBRATA. PISCES. 



and no new power of changing the direction being 

 possessed ; so that the fish falls into the water again, 

 not because the wing-like fins have become dry, but 

 because the force of the original leap is exhausted. 



The common Atlantic Flying-fish, (E. Folitans,) 

 has occasionally strayed to our own shores, several 

 instances of which are recorded in Mr. Yarrell's 

 beautiful work on British Fishes. Its peculiar home, 

 however, is in the warm seas of the tropical regions, 

 where shoals of these little shining creatures may be 

 seen daily, harassed and pursued in their own ele- 

 ment, and quitting it for a few seconds to expose 

 themselves to equal dangers from above. Their lot 

 has been depicted as unusually hard, for while Dol- 

 phins, Bonettos, and other rapacious fishes pursue 

 them unrelentingly below, the Albatross and Frigate 

 Pelican wait in the air to catch them the instant 

 they emerge. Still, it must not be forgotten, that 

 their powers are proportioned to their perils. 



Of the true character of their aerial excursions 

 we quote some remarks in Griffith's Animal King- 

 dom. They " rise into the air by thousands at once, 

 and in all possible directions. Their flight, as it is 

 called, carries them fifteen or eighteen feet out of 

 the water ; but it is an error to call them Flying 

 fishes; they do not in reality fly they only leap 

 into the air, where they have not the power of sus- 

 taining themselves at will. They never come forth 

 from the water, except after a rapid course of swim- 

 ming. When put alive into a vessel of sea water, in 

 which there was not sufficient space to acquire mo- 



