354 Recreations of a Sportsman 



thinks that they are used to accelerate flight. 

 I have watched them for hours in the great patch 

 of sargassum which forms the border-land of 

 the Sargasso Sea, and in various localities; and 

 while there is undoubtedly a fluttering of the 

 wing, it seemed to me to be due to the rapid 

 movement of the fish through the air. These fishes 

 exceed the flying fishes already referred to in 

 beauty of coloring, and are totally unlike them 

 in many ways. The wings or side fins are but 

 two in number, but much larger and beautifully 

 colored. The fish is armed almost from head 

 to foot; its scales are keeled, its blunt head pro- 

 tected by plates of bone, and the hard opercu- 

 lum ends with a backward projecting spine, 

 giving it the appearance of a helmet, while the 

 keeled scales which cover the body carry out 

 the idea of an armored knight. 



These " fliers " are not the equals of the true 

 flying fishes in flight ; yet I have seen them cover 

 long distances. Individuals have been known to 

 knock down sailors and stun them by striking 

 them at night. An extraordinary illustration 

 of their powers of flight is given by Moseley 

 who, while fishing, hooked one, which im- 

 mediately bounded into the air, taking hook and 

 line with it, and soaring away, to the amazement 

 of the naturalist, who, not accustomed to methods 

 so peculiar, lost the fish. These fishes are among 

 the most grotesque in form and coloring, some 



