FISHES 
Among the fishes which earliest attract the observation of a voyager passing from the 
north towards the equator, are the Exocceti, popularly known as Flying-fishes, and pecu- 
liarly interesting on account of their singular power of elevating themselves above 
the surface of the water in a manner somewhat resembling flight. Should they fail 
to excite attention by their excursions above the waves, they will occasionally intrude 
themselves upon the notice of the voyager by even throwing themselves from the sea 
upon the deck of the vessel in which he sails. Some of these, of the species termed 
by Linnaeus Exococtus volitans, were seen the day after quitting Teneriffe, and others 
were observed during many of the following days. They were carefully examined as 
to their anatomy, and other particulars, and especially as to their specific gravity, an 
interesting point as connected with their power of raising and supporting themselves in 
the air. “ In the present state of our knowledge,” Mr. Lay observes, “ it is needless 
to remark that the Flying-fishes possess no claim whatever to be regarded as the con- 
necting link between fishes and birds, classes widely separated in a natural arrangement 
of vertebrated animals : their large pectoral fins have nothing in their structure in com- 
mon with the wings of birds, and are unfurnished with muscles capable of communicating 
to them the rapid motions of alternate elevation and depression, which give to wings 
the power of supporting and conveying their bodies through the air, during almost an 
indefinite time. The flight of an Exoccetus appears generally to be a single effort ; a 
smart stroke is given by the expanded pectoral fins to the water; the impulse thus 
given raises the body of the fish above the surface, where, rendered buoyant by its 
large air-bladder, and the parachute-like form of its extended fins, it is supported 
during a short time ; but it soon falls into the water, and, like other projectiles, declines 
more quickly when the angle at which it has risen has been greater than 40°: it falls 
by the laws of gravitation, and by no means stoops into the water, either for the purpose 
of wetting its wings, or for that of aerating the blood in its branchiae.” — L.* 
Mr. Lay Further remarks, that he never observed a Flying-fish to rise and sink in 
its flight as birds do, nor does he think that it possesses any such power : but from this 
statement that of Mr. Collie differs. In his notes Mr. Collie remarks, “ After repeat- 
edly observing the Flying-fish when skipping over the tops of the waves, I have no 
hesitation in asserting as a fact, that these fishes have the power of descending a little 
and rising up again in the air without touching any part of the surface of the sea ; that 
they have the power of changing the direction of their course to either side without 
touching the water, but generally pursue their flight in a right line ; that they fly in all 
* The letter L. succeeding a passage between inverted commas, implies that such passage is quoted from the note* 
of Ml. Lay. To the quotations from Mr. Collie’s notes a C. is affixed. 
