Wing Shots at Sea 



and the fish becomes a parachute, a living aeroplane, 

 shooting along over the water a foot or more above 

 it. In this way the fish is enabled to fly an eighth 

 of a mile or more; then its tail drops, touches the 

 water, and if the fish is still pursued, begins the screw- 

 like action which imparts to the entire body a wrig- 

 gling, tremulous motion which for an instant gives to 

 the wings the appearance of flying, and again the 

 fish is in the air. I have seen the fliers in this way 

 move far out of the range of vision in one sustained 

 rush. 



The flying-fish is the choicest food of the tuna, and 

 the arrival of the fliers indicates the opening of the 

 tuna season generally from the twentieth of May to 

 June first. At this time the coast of Santa Catalina 

 island in the vicinity of Avalon is the scene of bril- 

 liant charges of these active fishes and marvelous 

 flights on the part of the flying-fishes. I have seen 

 a school of tunas charge a school of flying-fishes, 

 which dashed into the air like a flock of birds, 

 the wind lifting them twenty feet upward, sending 

 them careening away, glistening and scintillating like 

 gigantic insects, to reach within a foot or two of the 

 surface when they moved on, the tunas following 

 beneath them, or swimming slightly on one side, with 

 one eye cast up, never losing sight of the prey, and 

 dashing at it as it touched the water. Some endeav- 

 ored to secure them flying in the air, and I have seen 

 a tuna come up from below like a living arrow, strike 



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