130 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



form a kind of wings capable of sustaining the fish during a short flight through 

 the air. They have scales on the head and body, and a raised line of keeled scales 

 along each flank, as in the gar-fish and saury-pikes ; the head is flattened above 

 and on the sides ; the dorsal is over the anal ; the upper lobe of the caudal is the 

 shortest ; the eyes are large ; the intermaxillaries have no pedicles, and form the 

 whole border of the upper jaw ; the teeth are small and pointed on both jaws, and 

 " en paves" on the pharyngeals; there are ten gill-rays ; the air-bladder is large, 

 and the intestines straight without caeca. Some species have barbels on the lower 

 jaw. 



The Flying-fish inhabit all the warm and temperate districts of the ocean. 

 Cuvier remarks that their wing-like pectoral fins serve as parachutes merely, but 

 after daily observation of their flight, during a voyage of several months within the 

 tropics, I can give my testimony to the correctness of Mr. Collie's statement, made 

 in the Appendix to Captain Beechey's voyage, that these fish not only possess the 

 power of descending and rising in the air without touching the water, but also of 

 suddenly changing the direction of their flight, and going off even at a right angle 

 previous to alighting in the sea. Their flight can extend to several hundred yards, 

 and is very rapid, being apparently scarcely inferior to that of a swift bird : their 

 descent into the water is sometimes sudden, as if they dropt down from exhaustion, 

 at other times gradual like their ascent, and they occasionally bury themselves in 

 the brow of a rising wave. They often rise from the water in a perfect calm, but 

 they seem to take to the air more frequently during the prevalence of a moderate 

 breeze, though this may be partly accounted for by our field of observation being 

 increased when the ship was in motion. The approach of the vessel often occa- 

 sioned the flight of a shoal of these fish, and we could then easily ascertain that the 

 angle of the course with the wind varied, though I never saw them fly directly 

 against a breeze, however slight. In the moonlight nights many flew into the ports 

 of the small frigate in which I was then serving, and furnished a very agreeable 

 addition to our breakfast. 



The exocetus exiliens, which Bloch obtained from Carolina, is distinguished by the position 

 of its long ventrals behind the middle of the body. It is figured by Dr. M itchill (pi. v., f. 3) 

 under the name of the New York Flying-fish, although he makes no mention of it in his text. 

 The young have black bands on their fins, and M. Le Sueur's E. fasciatus, taken in the 

 Gulf-stream, is, in Cuvier's opinion, merely one of these. It is probably this species which, 

 keeping in the warm waters of the Gulf-stream, ranges northwards to the banks of Newfound- 

 land. Cuvier observes, that the E. exiliens and mesogaster of Bloch resemble each other so 

 much that it is not easy to distinguish the species by the descriptions and figures of voyagers. 



