472 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
species which inhabit the Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea, the 
Indian Ocean and Archipelago, and the Japan Seas. 
To those who may never have had the opportunity to observe 
the flight of these fishes, it may seem a matter of no little 
surprise that it is still an unsettled question whether they fly or 
skim. The difference of opinion on this point is all the more 
remarkable, as the flying fish has been known at least since the 
time of Pliny and even Aristotle, and has always attracted the 
attention of voyagers. Although its aérial flight, to accomplish 
which it has to leave its native element, is not at all more 
remarkable than the sub-aquatic flight of the Guillemots, Grebes, 
Auks, and Penguins, all of which are accustomed to change 
temporarily their own element for that of the finny race, to 
move through the water with even greater rapidity than the fishes 
themselves, and to remain submerged longer than the Flying-fish 
remains above water ; and although the modification of the fins 
for aérial locomotion is certainly not greater than that of the 
wings of the Auks and Penguins for flight under water; yet the 
testimony of able scientific witnesses in favour of the actual flight 
of Exocetus has been often challenged by equally good observers, 
and plausible reasons have recently been urged against even the 
possibility of such flight. 
It is maintained by many, perhaps the majority of observers, 
that the Exoceti are sustained by the parachute-like action of 
the pectoral fins, which they simply hold outstretched during 
their passage through the air. According to this view the fins 
exhibit none of that ‘‘ poetry of motion” seen in the bird’s wing, 
being capable of only a passive kite-like action, like the mem- 
brane-wings of the Flying Squirrel (Pteromys), the Flying Lemur 
(Galcopithecus), the marsupial Petaurists (Petawrus, Shaw), or the 
foot-web of the Flying Frog of Borneo. 
* * * * * * * 
Burmeister, in his ‘ Reise nach Brasilien’ (Berlin, 1858, 
p- 36), declares that he watched the Flying-fish for a long time, 
and saw with certainty ‘‘ that they made no kind of movement 
with their large pectoral fins, but held them quietly outspread like 
a parachute.” 
In his well-known work on ‘Animal Locomotion’ (p. 98), 
Pettigrew says:—‘‘ Whether the Flying-fish uses its greatly- 
expanded fins as a bird its wings, or only as parachutes, has not, | 
