If you are not interested in flying-fish and their finny ways, just .skip 

 the next two or three pages. Not all these curious animals belong to the 

 same genus or even to the same family. In one or other of their many forms 

 they are found all over the oceanic world. The true flying-fish - perhaps we 

 say true because it is the commonest Atlantic variety - is Exocoetus volitans . 



Following the flag (I suppose), it is also to be seen volplaning in 

 Hawaiian waters. In this species the pectoral fins are as long as its body, 

 To round, out the collection of American fliers, we have the largest of all the 

 species, Exocoetes calif ornicus ( vel Cypselurus calif ornicus ) - the Great 

 Flying-Fish, 18 inches long - inhabiting the coastal tides of California. It 

 is also appropriate that the zoologist who knows most about these piscian won- 

 ders, should be Chancellor David Starr Jordan of Stanford University., The 

 flight-mechanism and methods studied by him and his former assistants, Pro- 

 fessors Gilbert and Evermann,. are briefly as follows:- The flying fish of 

 the open sea live in schools, and "fly" a distance of a few rods to an eighth 

 of a mile, rarely rising more than three or four feet out of the water. Their 

 movements in the water are very rapid, and from this alone do they gain the 

 force that impels them through the water. The apparent vibration of the pec- 

 torals in the air does not to any appreciable extent aid their progress over 

 the water, 0 n rising from the surface the movements of the tail are continued 

 until the whole body is out of the water, The vibration of the pectorals is 

 not a truly flying movement, but is due to the resistance of the air itself. 

 In the water both ventrals are folded; when in air both pectorals and ventrals 

 are spread to act as parachutes or wings, to hold the body in air. Ihen the 

 fish begins to fall, and its tail touches the water, the tail again begins 

 to move, enabling it once more to resume flight. 



In full flight the fish takes advantage of the wind, turning about to fly 

 with the favoring breeze." Although I have rather carefully watched flying- 

 fish on several oceans and tidal rivers I have never been fortunate enough to 

 see them "fly", i.a., use their latoral fins as a means of progression through 

 the air. 



Once I saw a school of freshwater flying-fish aJDO miles up a tropical 

 river but they belonged to a different genus, and perhaps order, than Exocoetus . 

 During this journey into the interior of South America, my four companions and 

 I watched and discussed the movements of these small, sunfish-shaped skinners 

 of the river surface. They did not "fly" in the air so much as they skipped 

 over the calm water of the Potaro in a perfectly straight line for from 5 to 

 20 yards by a sculling motion of the tail. The fore part of the rounded ab- 

 domen also rested on the surface and seemed to furnish some support as the fish 

 scudded along. Dr. Gifford, who watched many of these fish very critically, 

 feels certain that he never saw one, on that journey, rise free of the water 

 and actually "fly" through the air, like Exocoetus . 0 n the other hand, he be- 

 lieves he has seen Cypselurus calif ornicus use his pectorals, like a hugh dra- 

 gon-fly, as an actual propellor. 



He has not seen them fly more than 100 yards and then not more than two 

 or three feet above the waves, I have discussed this matter with many ob- 

 servers, in particular with an old sea captain interested in natural history 

 who had for hours at a time watched flying-fish all over the world. He 

 placed the limit of flight in anv species he had seen at two hundred yards, 



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