GREATEJt FLYtNG FISH. 
129 
specimen given to me by its possessor, Mr. John Fox, of 
Plymouth, T have no hesitation in believing it to be the Greater 
Flying Fish referred to above. But if any doubt could remain 
it must be set at rest by the examination which I had an 
opportunity of making of one which had thrown itself on the 
qua}' at Plymouth, and which came immediately into the hands 
of the gentleman who then possessed it. In the month of 
October, 1849, another of these fishes was left by the tide in 
Stonehouse Pool, in the harbour of Plymouth; and it is at 
this time preserved in the museum of the Institute at that 
town. 
The faculty of flying, or rising aloft to a considerable height 
in the air, is such a remarkable character in fishes, that it has 
always excited attention in those who have observed it, and 
who have considered it an amusing incident, which served to 
lessen the tediousness of a long voyage over an expanse of ocean 
that is little diversified by other occurrences. But although to 
a casual observer it has an appearance not much unlike the 
corresponding action of a bird, and it has been more closely 
watched by attentive students of nature, it still remains doubtful 
whether the flight is to be ascribed solely to a vigorous 
impulse, impressed by the muscular power of the tail on the 
water, with perhaps the help also of the ventral fins, or whether 
some sustaining motion of the expanded pectoral fins may lend 
assistance in seconding the action of the other fins as it passes 
through the air, in addition to the gliding motion which, by 
its peculiar structure, is proper to it, and prevents a sudden 
fiill or abrupt descent, until in the course of a lengthened 
journey it again alights obliquely on the wave. It has been 
the latest decision of naturalists that the impulse obtained by 
the action of the caudal fin, as it quits the sea, is the cause 
of all that is observed in the air; but there are some consider- 
ations which, in adopting this opinion, have scarcely been taken 
into account; and some of the actions of these fishes appear to 
imply that the expanded fins are not without them use in 
modifying and impelling, as well as sustaining the flight; in 
probable support of which opinion. Captain Tuckey, in his 
Voyage to the Congo, remarked a movement of the fins of a 
fluttering kind as they rose from the surface. 
The observations we give are from several sources, some of 
VOL. IV. s 
