212 



THE OPAL SEA 



The Hying 

 fish. 



numbers are depleted by many destroyers, and 

 besides he has an ugly habit of feeding upon 

 his own kind. Cannibalism is not infrequent 

 among all the sea fishes. And still, that the 

 flying fish should not become extinct, nature 

 provided for him a better expedient ttan the 

 mackerel's attempt to hide in the multitude of 

 the school. She gave him abnormally long pec- 

 toral fins that act as wings wherewith he flies 

 or sails through the air. There is still some 

 question about the exact manner of the flight. 

 Seen at a distance, the fish seems to throw him- 

 self out of the water with a screw-like churn 

 twist of his powerful tail; and once 



How he 



flie». 



Vibration 

 and tailing. 



or 



launched in the air to sail rather than to fly. 

 The flight is maintained not usually for more 

 than one or two hundred yards, and yet fre- 

 quently so far as a quarter of a mile. In the 

 air the fish seems to be somewhat wooden and 

 apparently holds his body rigid, riding the 

 breeze like a clay pigeon. When, however, he 

 rises from under the fore foot of a ship, and 

 one looks down upon him as he rises, the thin 

 wing-like fins are seen to vibrate and to fan the 

 air almost as swiftly as the wings of a hum- 

 ming bird. Whether the vibration is momen- 

 tary or long-continued is difficult to determine; 

 but it would seem that the wings propel the fish 



