No. 469] 



FLYING-FISH FLIGHT 



7 



calculations, and merely point out that, however much scientists 

 may differ as to the amount of the loss of the supporting power 

 involved, none will dispute that there will he a very trreat loss. 



Yet again, if these descents from favoiinir suj)))().siti()ns to 

 sober facts will not convince, I must advance one iiioro argument. 

 It is, I believe, like the others, new groiiiKl, and I will give it a 

 fresh paragraph. 



Flying-fish, at the end of tlicir fir>t fli-ht of usually about 10 to 

 50 yards, have a habit, especially when ajtproaching the crest of a 

 wave, of momentarily checking their wing-movement and slowing 

 down from the blur of great rapidity into a pace in which the 

 flapping of the wing becomes easily visible. This period of visi- 

 bility is supposed by aeroplanists to be the only portion of the 

 flight during which the wings move, and they even deny them at 

 this time any supporting power whatever. It is their "period of 

 occasional vibration" or "fluttering," and their explanation thereof 

 will make a mechanician smile or feel sad, according to his tem- 

 perament. I have alreadv (pioted it from Mobins, and it amounts 

 to tiie wings trailing in the wind like a loosely Happing flag, thus 

 not onlv depriving the h(>avy fish of the so calle.l support of its 

 miniature aeroplanes, hut actually converting them into an active 

 drag. 



And yet, according to the theorists, at an extreme suggested 

 speed of 131 miles an hour, the fish still sails! 



Such an upsetting of one of the best known of nature's laws as 

 all the foregoing implies would be impossible of final acceptance, 

 even if we could not, as many of us can, see the flying-fish flying. 



I studied the "vibration" or flutter periods very carefully this 

 spring w^hen returning from the Gulf of Mexico. Their object 

 and method seemed simple and clear, and to be as follows: the 

 slowing down from extreme wing-speed into visibilitv heralds an 

 immediate increased effort of flight, often, if not usually, to enaide 

 the fish to .surmount a wave. The fish is. in fact, pulling itself 

 together for a spurt. The flutter, as was to be expected, is accom- 

 panied by a slight fall of the fish of perhaps 2 or 3 inches; but the 

 spurt, at once put on, regains the lost elevation and lifts the fish 

 well over the obstacle. This sudden rise of the fish (the "fre- 

 quently overtop each wave" of Mobius) is constantly to be seen, 

 and to many the wings seem still at this time. 



