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Much discussion as to the flight of these fishes has been 
published. Their motive power is due to the action of the strong tail 
while in the water. The fish suddenly leaping out are planed by their 
pectorals extended like a parachute rather than as wings, so that the 
fish may finally fall or slip back into the sea with a splash. Every 
gradation from the leaping or scuttling along the surface, as with the 
green gars and balaos, to the most bird like flight may be excotintered 
among these fishes and their allies. 
”Much has been written of the flight of the Flying-fishj 
and we have ascertained, chiefly from MBbius, that it is quite different 
from the flight of birds or insects or the fluttering of a bat, and 
more closely resembles the leaping movements made through the air by the 
Flying Squirrels or the Flying Lizards (Dragons). By the help of the 
large and strong lateral muscles of the body the fish attains the speed 
of an arrow, which it mantains above the water, slackening, of course, 
t 
ttjwards the end, and thus traverses a distance of from 100 to 150 metres 
through the air in less than 20 seconds. At the same instant as it leaves 
the surface of the water, the pectoral and ventral fins are expanded. 
It supports itself principally on the former fins, but almost passively, 
the wind and pressure of the aimiosphere bearing the fish along without 
any exertion on its own part, save that needed to keep these fins expanded. 
There is no independent motion of these fins, according to llBbius; but 
when the wind blows in a direction exactly parallel to their plane, the 
hind margin flutters, like the sails of a boat in stays. The Flying-fish 
cannot steer an independent course, according to MBbius, the direction 
of its flight being fixed by the impetus once gained; and when the speed 
