460 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



Italians and Spaniards of the Pacific coast as the < Volator,' reaches a length of eighteen inches 

 and a weight of one and a half pounds, being one of the largest of the Flying-fishes. It is found 

 only about Santa Barbara and the Coronados Islands, where it is excessively abundant in the 

 summer, appearing in June and disappearing probably in September. This fish flies for a distance 

 sometimes of nearly a quarter of a mile, usually not rising more than three or four feet. Its 

 motions in the water are extremely rapid, and its motive power is certainly the movement of its 

 powerful tail in the water. On rising from the water the movements of the tail are continued for 

 some seconds, until the whole body is out of the water. While the tail is in motion the pectorals 

 are in a state of very rapid vibration, and the ventrals are folded. When the action of the tail 

 ceases, the pectorals and ventrals are spread, and, as far as we can see, held at rest. When the 

 fish begins to fall, the tail touches the water and the motion of the pectorals recommences, and it 

 is enabled to resume its flight, which it finally finishes by falling into the water with a splash. 

 When on the wing it resembles a large dragon-fly. Th motion is very swift; at first it is in a 

 straight line, but this becomes deflected to a curve, the pectoral on the inner side of the arc being 

 bent downward. It is able to some extent to turn its course to shy off from a vessel. The motion 

 seems to have no reference to the direction of the wind; and we observed it best from the bow of 

 a steamer off Santa Catalina Island in early morning, when both air and water were free from 

 motion." 



Two other species of Scomberesocidce occur on the Pacific coast. Hemirhamphus Rosce, J. & G., 

 inhabiting San Diego and San Pedro Bays, is too small and too scarce to be of any value as a 

 food-fish. Scomberesox brcvirostris Peters is found from Tomales to Monterey, and is sent to 

 market when taken. It is, however, extremely rare and only one was seen by Jordan. 



THE SKIPJACK SCOMBEEESOX SATJRUS. 



The Skipjack, although in general appearance very dissimilar to the Flying-fish, is a member 

 of the same family. It is quite similar in form to the silver gar-fish, Tylosurus, from which it differs 

 in the long beak-like jaws, slender and flexible, and in having fiulets behind the dorsal and anal 

 fins. In England it is known as the "Skipper," "Skopster"; also in the books as the "Saury," 

 or the "Egypt Herring," and by the Scotch as the " Gawnook." 



This species is probably found in all parts of the Atlantic, although it has not yet been recorded 

 from South America. On our coast it is abundant at times from the Gulf of Mexico to the Banks 

 of Newfoundland. In the Eastern Atlantic it ranges from the Loffoden Isles, latitude 69, to the 

 Gape of Good Hope, specimens having also been observed about Saint Helena; it does not, how- 

 ever, occur in the Mediterranean, where it is replaced by an allied species, Sayrus Camperii, which 

 is distinguished from it by the absence of the air-bladder. On the New England coast large 

 schools are occasionally seen in autumn, and this is the only part of our Atlantic seaboard 

 where they are of any special importance. Codfish feed upon them voraciously, and they are 

 sometimes eaten by blnefish. Storer remarks: "Large quantities are yearly thrown upon the shore 

 at Provincetown, but are considered worthless, while by the inhabitants of the other towns of 

 Cape Cod it is taken in immense numbers and considered by many of them very nutritious food." 



DeKay supposed New York to be the extreme limit of the southern range of this species, hut it 

 has been observed at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, and at Bedford, North Carolina, by Jordan. 



Neill states that it is not an uncommon fish in the Frith of Forth. Numbers run up with the 

 flood-tide in the autumn; they do not, like other fishes, retire from the shoals at the ebb of the 

 tide, but are then found by hundreds, having their long noses stuck in the slush, and are picked 

 up by people from Kincardine, Alloway, and other places. The fullest account of their habits 

 is the following, from the pen of Mr. Couch : 



