d54 



ZOOLOGY. 



■nritli great speed witliout reference to the course of the vind 

 and waves. They make no regular flying motions with their 

 pectoral and ventral fins, hut spread them out quietly, 

 though very rapid vibrations can be seen in the outstretched 

 pectoral fius. They usually fly faaiher aguiust the mnd than 

 ■with it, or if their ti'ack and the direction of the wind form 

 an angle, ilost flying-fish which fly against or with the 

 Avind continue in their whole course of fiight in the same di- 

 rection in which they come out of the water. Winds which 

 blow from one side on to the original track of the fish bend 

 their course inward. All fish which are at a distance from 

 the vessel hover in their whole course in the air near the sur- 

 face of the water. If in strong winds they fly against the 



Fig. 415. — The Large Chub, Semotilus rhotheits, one fifth natural size, — ^From Abbot. 



course of the waves, then they fly a little higlier ; sometimcL: 

 they cut with the tail into the crest of the waves. Only 

 such fl_Ying-fish rise to a considerable lieight (at the highest, 

 by chance, five metres above the surface of the sea) whose 

 course in the air becomes obstructed bv a vessel. In the 

 daytime flying-fish seldom fall on the deck of tlie ship, but 

 mostly in the night ; never in a cahn (Moebius). Whitman 

 claims that they truly fly and can eliange their course in 

 mid-air. We have seeii one rise and fall during flight. 



Following the flying-tish is tlie family represented bv the 

 silver gar or bill-fish {Bclonc longiros/ni.^ ^Mitehill, Fig. 416). 



The sucker (EcJieneis reinora Linn.) occurs along the 

 whole coast of the United States, and is found all over the 



