146 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



water, they only begin to spread their wings just as they are 

 about to leave the surface. The shoals of fry that one often 

 passes through seem to flap their wings in abortive attempts to 

 rise, but to swim with the tail alone. I think, as a rule, that 

 most fish of all sorts use the tail and not the pectorals when 

 swimming fast, but when swimming slowly the pectorals are 

 slightly employed, and then more as guides and checks than as 

 propellers. 



Dr. Mobius, quoted on the same page (loc. cit. p. 402), says : 

 " Flying Fish often fall on board vessels, but this never happens 

 during a calm, or from the lee- side." I have, though rarely, known 

 Flying Fish come on board in a calm at night, when they fly at 

 the lights, but in rough weather I have known them come on 

 board from both sides alike. 



In 1882 I had special opportunities for watching the flight 

 closely, and I give the substance of notes made at the time. It 

 was on the way home from the Persian Gulf in a tramp steamer, 

 and we had to face an exceptionally heavy south-west monsoon 

 from Maskat to Aden, especially after rounding Eas al Had. We 

 battled for nearly a fortnight amid waves like hills that kept 

 piling up against us, and out of these waves shoals of Flying 

 Fish used to start like flocks of Starlings. These sboals used to 

 fly all day at short intervals quite close to the ship, and very 

 frequently across it, within a yard of my position, and I was often 

 able to see them against the sky. Once, after dark, one struck 

 me on the back — a somewhat severe blow. Often they would 

 strike the rigging and fall down, when they were eagerly snapped 

 up for nest morning's breakfast. I used to watch them for 

 hours as they kept flying past, and I could see quite distinctly 

 that their tails were vibrating very rapidly from side to side 

 during the whole of the flight, and that the wings would vibrate 

 with an intensely rapid shivering motion for a second, then 

 remain outspread motionless for one or two seconds, and then 

 vibrate again. This vibration of the wings is not up and down 

 as is the case when birds fly, but in an almost horizontal 

 direction. Often, however, the period of soaring with motionless 

 wings appears longer than two seconds, especially towards the 

 end of the flight, just before they fall into the water with a splash, 

 though the vibration of the tail always continues throughout the 



