644 A. VACATION TRIP TO BRAZIL. 
much ease as if it were a bird. I have observed that the 
vertical inclination of the “wings” is varied considerably, 
and the vertical undulations of its flight appear to be 
directed by these fins. It has evidently no power of di- 
recting its lateral motions, although one might rather look 
for the use of the tail for that purpose. If the fish darts 
right against the wind, its flight may be in a straight line, 
ending by its pitching plump into the water, but if the 
course be oblique to the wind, it is soon blown aside. Of 
the thousands of flying-fish I have observed, I have never 
seen one tack up into the wind, unless it plunged into a 
wave and took a fresh start, as is not infrequently the case, 
when it darts into the water and out again, like an arrow 
shot through a wave. I have spoken of the flapping of 
e fins on rising; during the rest of the flight this is 
ordinarily not observed, their only motion being the 
gentle variation in inclination; but if the animal finds 
itself settling before its flight is finished, as soon as the 
tail touches the water, that fin is agitated, while there is 
a fluttering seen of the pectorals: should the fish rise 
again, the fluttering ceases. The fish seen rising near the 
ship are evidently frightened by her approach. Looking 
over her bows when the waves are not disturbed by 
minor undulations, one may see shoals of them darting 
irregularly about in the water. Sometimes they spring 
up suddenly in clouds. The bonito, sharks, and other 
fish prey on the flying-fish, and the latter, when attacked, 
leap out of water to elude their enemies. One day we 
saw a school of bonitos which. were ever and anon leaping 
out of the water. Before them the flying-fishes were 
flying away like clouds of grasshoppers in advance of one 
_ Walking through a grass field. Overhead whirled some 
- large, graceful, white, long-tailed tropic birds (Phaëton), 
