THIRD ENTRY. 



FLYING FISH AND THEIR ENEMIES. 



lESrEglHE flying fish seems to prefer wind, and is particu- 

 Ifljll larly merry when the sea is agitated by a six-knot 

 breeze. Perhaps it would be more correct to say 

 that the larger fish which prey upon it are very much on 

 the alert on such occasions, even as the pike of the fresh 

 waters at home make more frequent demand upon the fisher- 

 man's energies in rough than in calm weather. The fact 

 remains, on the evidence of my own observations renewed 

 every day for a fortnight, and on that of the seafaring 

 people on board, who must be excellent authorities on the 

 subject, that the flying fish appear in greater number and 

 friskiness on moderately rough days. 



The movements of the flying fish are as graceful as a 

 swallow's, and the creature is a much more shapely object 

 than I had been led to expect from pictures, written descrip- 

 tions, or the few preserved specimens I had seen. The 

 stuffed affair at the British Museum, like all the other repre- 

 sentations of the fish world there, is, of course, an outrage on 

 Nature. The wings, large in comparison with the body, 



