:::::::::=>x: TWO BIRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO W-^^ 



And liow curious tliey are ; descriptions and drawings 

 being powerless to give any adequate conception of 

 them in life ! 



Probably the astonishment which one feels at be- 

 holding a fish desert its element, to which it seems 

 so helplessly bound, and skim lightly as a bird, yard 

 after yard through the air, is no less in a well-read 

 student of fishes than in a person who has never 

 heard of such a phenomenon. From the bow we 

 watched the tiny grey forms, which shot ahead just 

 below the surface, suddenly emerge, the four great fins 

 instantly spreading taut. The smaller posterior pair 

 fold up and close occasionally, but the pectoral ones 

 remain expanded. A fresh impetus is sometimes gained 

 by a second's touch of the tail to the crest of a wave, 

 a frantic wiggle sending the little creature up and on 

 again. But soon strength and momentum give out 

 and the flight ends in an unlovely flop into the water. 

 Some of the Flying-Fish seem but half an inch in 

 length, — from our lookout they are hardly larger 

 than blue-bottle flies, — while the largest may be six 

 or seven inches from head to tail. Similes between 

 marine and terrestrial creatures are often inapt and ill- 

 taken, but no one can deny the resemblance between 

 these fish and the large flying grasshoppers of our 

 summer meadows. 



The most exciting event of the day proved to be 

 the discovery of several waterspouts — great Atlas-like 

 <i- 10 ^ 



