ANIMAL AVOCATIONS 
237 
twenty-one flounders and a John Dory were 
taken from the stomach of a captured individual. 
Even sea-birds sometimes fall victims to its 
appetite, and we are told that on one occasion 
one of these fish was discovered in the act of 
endeavouring to swallow a seagull; while even 
such indigestible items as iron grapnels and 
the cork floats of crab-pots have been known to 
be swallowed by this marine gourmand. 
Although the vocation of an aeronaut is a 
comparatively new one in regard to the human 
race, yet among animals the art of flying has 
for long been an established occupation. The 
majority of birds and insects are, of course, 
adepts in the accomplishment of aerial evolu¬ 
tions, but some of the fish, as well as a few of 
the mammals and reptiles, are also endowed 
with the power to fly. 
Of the mammalian aeronauts the bats are 
the only ones that are able to lift their bodies 
up into the air by their own physical efforts, 
the digits of their fore-limbs being very elonga¬ 
ted, and supporting a thin membrane of skin 
which serves to beat the air in the manner of 
the wings of a bird. 
Other so-called flying mammals, such as 
the flying-phalangers and the flying-squirrels, 
merely glide through the air for brief periods 
by means of stretching tight flaps of skin that 
