132 
SLTuro-riSH. 
galvanised by the same metals. Thus, the fish is capable 
of throwing itself horizontally the distance of twenty feet 
before retouching the water with the extremity of its fins. 
This motion has been aptly compared to that of a fiat stone, 
which, thrown horizontally, bounds one or two feet above 
the water. Notwithstanding the extreme rapidity of this 
motion, it is certain, that the animal beats the air during 
the leap ; that is, it alternately extends and closes its pec- 
toral fins. The same motion lias been observed in the fly ing 
scorpion of the rivers of Japan: they also contain a large 
air-bladder, with which the great part" of the scorpions that 
have not the faculty of flying are unprovided. The flying- 
fish, like almost all animals which have gills, enjoy the 
power of equal respiration for a long time, both in water 
and in air, by the same organs ; that is, by extracting the 
oxygen from the atmosphere as well as from the water 
in which it is dissolved. They pass a great part of their 
life in the air; but if they escape from the sea to avoid 
the voracity of the Dorado, they meet in the air the Frigate- 
bird, the Albatross, and others, which seize them in their 
flight. Thus, on the banks of the Orinoco, herds of the 
Cabiai, which rush from the water to escape the cro- 
codile, become the prey of the jaguar, which awaits their 
arrival. 
I doubt, however, whether 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 s 
direction constantly opposite to that of the waves. In our 
own climates, on the brink of a river, illumined by the rays of 
the sun, we often see solitary fish fearlessly hound 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 fiying-fisli, for instance the Exocsetus exiliens, 
the Trigla volitans, and the T. hirundo, have as capacious an 
air-bladder as the flying-fish of the tropics. This last follows 
the heated waters of the Gulf-stream when they flow north- 
ward. The cabin-boys amuse themselves with cutting of? 
a part of the pectoral fins, and assert, that these wings grow 
