642 Do Flying Fish Fly ? [ September, 
the flight of these fishes, it may seem a matter of no little sur- 
prise 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 of 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 remark- 
able than the sub-aquatic: flight of the quillemots, grebes, auks 
and penguins, all of which are accustomed to exchange tempo- 
rarily their own element for that of the finny race, to move 
through the water with even greater rapidity than the fishes them- 
selves, 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 favor of the actual flight 
of Exoccetus, has been often challenged by equally good obser- 
vers, 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 Exocceti 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 membrane- 
wings of the flying squirrel (Pteromys), the flying lemur ( Gako- 
pithecus), the marsupial Petaurists (Petaurus Shaw.) or the foot- 
web of the flying frog of Borneo.’ 
In one of our popular “ natural histories” the flight of the flying — 
fish is explained in the following manner: “ These fishes possess 
the power of darting from the water into the air, and by the 
mingled force of the impetus with which they spring from the 
surface and the widely spread wing-like fins, to sustain themselves’ 
for a short space in the thinner element, and usurp for a time the _ 
privileges of the winged beings whose trackless path is through 
the air” 
_ “ The passage of this fish through the atmosphere can lay no 
just claim to the title of flight, for the creature does not flap the 
_ wing-like pectoral fins on which it is upborne.’? 
- Described by Wallace in his “Malay Archipelago.” 
2 Wood’s Natural History.” 
