15 



they escape from the sea to avoid the voracity 

 of the dolphin, they meet in the air men-of-war 

 birds, albatrosses, and other birds, which seize 

 them in their flight. Thus, on the banks 

 of the Oroonoko, herds of river cavies*, that 

 rush from the water to escape the crocodile, 

 become the prey of the jaguar, which waits their 

 arrival. 



I doubt, however, if the flying fish spring out 

 of the water merely to escape the pursuit of 

 their enemies. Like swallows, they move by 

 thousands in a right line, and in a direction 

 constantly opposite to that of the waves. In our 

 own climates, on the brink of a river, the limpid 

 waters of which are illumined by the rays of the 

 sun, we often see solitary fish, with no motive of 

 fear, bound above the surface, as if they felt 

 pleasure in breathing the air. Why should not 

 these gambols be more frequent with the flying- 

 fish, which from the strength of their pectoral 

 fins, and the smallness of their specific gravity^, 

 can so easily support themselves in the air ? I 

 invite naturalists to examine whether other fly- 

 ing fish, for instance the exocoetus exiliens, the 

 trigla volitans, and the t. hirundo, have as ca- 

 pacious an air-bladder as the flying fish of the 

 tropics. This last follows the heated waters of 



* Cavia capybara, L. Thick-nosed tapir, Pennant. 

 + Cuvier, in the Ann. du Mus. 1. 14, p. 165 ; and Dela- 

 roche, ibid. p. 262 (note). 



