THE FLYING FISH. 123 



The genus Scombresox has a closs general resemblance in form of body to Belone, the 

 jaws being similarly elongated, and the body similarly slender, and covered with thin deciduous 

 scales. The essential difference between the genera consists in the development in Scombresox 

 of a number of detached finlets posterior to the dorsal and anal fins, which extend to the 

 caudal fin. In this genus, too, the lower jaw is longer than the upper. Several species are 

 known from New Zealand, Japan, Chili, the Mediterranean, and both sides of the Atlantic. 

 The last species referred to Scombresox saurus commonly known as the Saury, or Skipper, is 

 usually from a foot to eighteen inches long, and the depth of the body may be about an inch. 

 The teeth are small; the upper jaw has a hinge movement, as in Belone. The food of this 

 fish consists chiefly of the smaller Crustacea, though the stomach occasionally contains sea- 

 weeds. Like the allied Belone, it resembles the Mackerel in flavoui 1 , and swims on the surface. 

 It travels in shoals, and has the power, when followed by the Porpoise, or carnivorous fishes, 

 of springing out of the water to a height of several feet, and passing over a distance of 

 thirty or forty feet before it again touches the sea. Couch, indeed, mentions that, when 

 pursued, the lish rush along the surface, like pebbles making "ducks and drakes," for more 

 than a hundred feet, apparently by the repeated toxich on the water of the pectoral, ventral, 

 and other fins and finlets on the lower part of the body. Several thousands have sometimes 

 been taken in a single cast of the seine net. 



The third genus Hemirham.ph.ua includes about forty species, mostly from tropical seas, 

 though they are perhaps more abundant in the East Indian Archipelago, and adjacent waters, 

 than elsewhere, and certain species, like Hemirhamphus fluviatilis, occur only in the rivers of 

 Java and other Eastern countries. Hemirhamphus is remarkable for having the lower jaw 

 prolonged into a slender, compressed beak, while the upper jaw is short. Both jaws are armed 

 with minute teeth, which in some species are tricuspid. The body in these fishes is elongated and 

 slender, and covered with scales, which are never small. It is worthy of notice that the lower jaw 

 is short in young specimens. The young of Belone have been mistaken for Hemirhamphus, even 

 by Yarrell and Couch. The species are mostly small, and range from a length of two inches to a 

 foot. The Hemirhamphus cuspidatus, from the Indian Ocean, has the prominent part of the lower 

 jaw remarkably short, and the pectoral fin about a quarter of the total length of the animal. 



Arrhamphus sclerolepis, from the coast of Queensland, is the only species of its genus, and 

 differs from Hemirhamphus in the shortness of the lower jaw. The scales are keeled. 



FLYIXG- FISH OF THE GENUS EXOCOETUS. 



This genus includes a large number of species, which all have the pectoral fins very long, 

 and capable of being used to support the fish when moving through the air. In some species 

 the length is more than half that of the body; in 

 other species it is somewhat less. These fishes, which 

 abound in the seas between the Tropics, and frequent 

 the open ocean, are widely distributed, and often 

 extend north and south into temperate waters. 

 Many species are very small, and do not exceed a 

 length of two to three inches, and none are large, 

 though the Exocoetus lineatus, from Madeira, and 

 some other species reach a length of sixteen inches. 

 Certain types have barbels below the mandible. 

 The jaws in these fishes are short, and the teeth 

 are minute, or may be wanting altogether. The 



oblong body is covered with large scales. The EXOCOETUS VOLITAXS. 



best-known of the Flying Fishes is the Exocoetus 



evolans, which ranges from Australia and the China Seas over the Indian Ocean, and is 

 met with in the West Indies, Mediterranean, and sometimes on the coast of England, shoals 

 having been seen off Portland and in many other localities. The snout is blunt, something 

 like that of the Grey Mullet; the body is wide across the back, compressed at the sides, 



