RED FIRE-FISH. Fterdis volitaru. 



The general colour of the Red Fire-fish is pinky brown, barred with darker brown, 

 and the head is redder than the body. The huge pectoral and dorsal fins are reddish 

 brown, crossed with bold bars of black ; the ventral fin is black, dotted with white spots, 

 and the rest of the fins, including that of the tail, are light brown, spotted with black. It 

 is by no means a large fish, being generally about seven or eight inches in length. There 

 are nine or ten species of this genus. 



ONE or two notable fishes require a cursory notice. 



The SEA LOCUST (Apistos Israelitorum) is a native of the Red Sea, and is remarkable 

 as being the only flying fish of those strange waters. It is particularly plentiful on that 

 part of the coast near which the Israelites were forced to wander for a space of forty years, 

 and on that account has received its specific title. Ehrenberg has noticed that it is very 

 abundant near Tor, and that several specimens fell into his boat almost every time that 

 the sea was agitated. He further throws out a suggestion, that the quails to which allusion 

 is made in the sacred volume are really the Sea Locusts, but this conjecture seems to be 

 entirely gratuitous, and is unsupported by facts. 



There is, in truth, no particular reason why the Hebrew word, which is translated as 

 " quails," should not signify the bird in question ; and at all events, it certainly seems to 

 be a feathered being of some kind, and not a fish, even though that fish does occasionally 

 raise itself into the air for a brief space. The Arab name for this fish is Gherad-el-bahr, 

 signifying literally, locust of the sea. The generic name, Apistos, signifies faithless or 

 treacherous, and is given to this fish on account of the sharp spines which jut from the 

 head, and which can inflict a painful wound. 



