GREATER FLYING FISH. 129 



specimen given to me by its possessor, Mr. John Fox, of 

 Plymouth, I have no hesitation in believing it to be the Greater 

 Flying Fish referred to above. But if any doubt could remain 

 it must be set at rest by the examination which I had an 

 opportunity of making of one which had thrown itself on the 

 quay at Plymouth, and which came immediately into the hands 

 of the gentleman who then possessed it. In the month of 

 October, 1849, another of these fishes was left by the tide in 

 Stonehouse Pool, in the harbour of Plymouth; and it is at 

 this time preserved in the museum of the Institute at that 

 town. 



The faculty of flying, or rising aloft to a considerable height 

 in the air, is such a remarkable character in fishes, that it has 

 always excited attention in those who have observed it, and 

 who have considered it an amusing incident, which served to 

 lessen the tediousness of a long voyage over an expanse of ocean 

 that is little diversified by other occurrences. But although to 

 a casual observer it has an appearance not much unlike the 

 corresponding action of a bird, and it has been more closely 

 watched by attentive students of nature, it still remains doubtful 

 whether the flight is to be ascribed solely to a vigorous 

 impulse, impressed by the muscular power of the tail on the 

 water, with perhaps the help also of the ventral fins, or whether 

 some sustaining motion of the expanded pectoral fins may lend 

 assistance in seconding the action of the other fins as it passes 

 through the air, in addition to the gliding motion which, by 

 its peculiar structure, is proper to it, and prevents a sudden 

 fall or abrupt descent, until in the course of a lengthened 

 journey it again alights obliquely on the wave. It has been 

 the latest decision of naturalists that the impulse obtained by 

 the action of the caudal fin, as it quits the sea, is the cause 

 of all that is observed in the air; but there are some consider- 

 ations which, in adopting this opinion, have scarcely been taken 

 into account; and some of the actions of these fishes appear to 

 imply that the expanded fins are not without their use in 

 modifying and impelling, as well as sustaining the flight; in 

 probable support of which opinion, Captain Tuckey, in his 

 Voyage to the Congo, remarked a movement of the fins of a 

 fluttering kind as they rose from the surface. 



The observations we give are from several sources, some of 

 VOL. iv. s 



