The Zoologist — October, 1873. 3739 



dolphins ; some of the poor fish were seating safety in the air, but 

 even here they were being pounced upon by a number of birds, so 

 that they seemed to have no chance of escaping whatever. Now 

 the dolphin part of the picture is correct enough, for these beautiful 

 fish {Coryph(Bn(B) are the direst enemies flying fish have, being 

 endued with wonderful powers of speed, and indeed often leaping 

 from the sea in pursuit of their prey ; and, added to this species, 

 I have no doubt boneta, albicore and various other predacious 

 creatures are constantly chasing them, and to escape these they 

 seek shelter in another element, but I have never yet seen a bird of 

 any description attempt to seize thera while in the air, nor am I 

 acquainted with anyone who has witnessed such a thing. As far 

 as my experience goes (in the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans) I know 

 of no bird that could manage to catch them; the various species 

 of albatross, petrels, gulls, skuas and shearwaters are either too 

 slow on the wing or too small. Frigate birds are said to stoop at 

 them, but I have not seen them do so ; gannets and pelicans might 

 strike at them from aloft when they are in the sea, but these fish 

 do not come in any numbers close to the land, nor do gannets or 

 pelicans proceed far to sea. I have seen tropic birds wheeling 

 round and round above the sea while flying fish have been leaping 

 below, but they never took any notice of them ; there may, how- 

 ever, be birds in the Indian or Chinese Seas that are in the habit 

 of seizing them. 



I do not imagine that these fish spring into the air only when 

 pursued by their natural enemies; on the contrary, I feel satisfied 

 they do so much more frequently of their own accord, out of pure 

 pleasure and enjoyment. There is no prettier sight than a number 

 of these fish in the air, with the bright sun shining on them and 

 making them glitter like burnished silver. Sometimes they rise 

 singly, sometimes two or three together, and often in shoals of 

 hundreds; in the latter case, as they nearly all fall into the sea 

 again together, the eff'ect is striking and peculiar, as each fish 

 throws up his individual jet of white spray, making it appear as if 

 a charge of canister had been fired over the surface of the water. 



Is it known where these fish deposit their spawn ? I am inclined 

 to fancy in mid-ocean, for I have seen them not an inch long more 

 than a thousand miles from the nearest land, and these minute 

 specimens when in the air bear a strong resemblance to locusts on 

 the wing. 



