B O OK I. 



FLYING-FISHES. 



T Here are fome who think what is faid of the Flying-Fijhes 

 a pure fi&ion, though confirmed by the relations of ma- 

 ny famous Travellers : But what opinion foever they may have 

 thereof who believe only what they have feen, it is a certain 

 truth, that as foon as Ships have pafs'dthe Canaries^ thence to 

 the Iflands of America^ there are often feen rifing out of the Sea 

 great numbers of Fifties which flye about the height of a Pike 

 above the water, and neer a hundred paces diftance, but no 

 more, in regard their wings are dried by the Sun : They are 

 fbmewhat like Herrings, but have a rounder head, and they are 

 broader on the back : their wings are like thofe of a Bat, which 

 begin a little below the head, and reach almoft to the tail : It 

 happens many times that in their flight they ftrike againft: the 

 fails of Ships, and fall even in the day time upon the Deck : 

 Thole who have drels'd and eaten of them think them very 

 delicate : Their forfaking the Sea their proper Element, is oc- 

 cafion'dupon their being purfud by other greater Fifties which 

 prey on them 5 and to avoid meeting with them they quit their 

 proper Element, making a fally into the air, and changing their 

 finnes into wings to efchew the danger 5 but they meet with 

 enemies in the air as well as in the water 5 for there are certain 

 Sea-fowls living only by prey, which have an open hoftility 

 againft them, and take them as they flye 3 as was laid in the pre- 

 cedent Chapter. 



SEA-PARROTS. 



THere are alfo in thefe parts certain Fifties fcaled like a 

 Carp, but as to colour are as green as a Parrot, Whence 

 they are by fome called Sea-Parrots : They have beautiful and 

 iparkling eyes, the balls clear as Chryftal, encompals'd by a cir- 

 cle argent, which is enclos'd within another as green as an 

 Emerald, of which colour are the fcales of their backs 5 for 

 thofe under the belly are of a yellowifti green : They have no 

 teeth, but jaws above and below of a folid bone, which is very 

 ftrong, of the fame colour as their fcales, and divided into lit- 

 tle compartiments very beautiful to the eye : They live on 

 Shell-Fifti, and with thofe hard jaw-bones they crufti, as be- 

 tween two mill-ftones, Oyfters, Mufcles, and other Shell-fifb, 

 to get out the meat : They are an excellent kind of fifti to eat, 

 and fo big , that fome of them have weigh*d above twenty 

 pounds. 



DORADO, 



