Do Flying-Fish Fly?

Abstract

I CANNOT pretend to the great experience of Mr. R. W. S. Mitchell in observations on aërial movements of the flying-fish when for a brief space he leaves his native element; but during one voyage from the Isthmus of Panama to England viâ the West Indies I lost no opportunity (of many) of watching these beautiful creatures, sometimes very close indeed to our steamer. The opinion I formed at the time and still retain was that there was constant very rapid motion of the great lateral fins whilst out of the water, so rapid, indeed, that the strokes of the fins could not be counted. From what Mr. Mitchell says, he evidently counted the strokes of the wings (pectoral fins), not by seeing the movements of these, but by the “impressions made on the oily surface of the water,” impressions apparently similar to those made by a cormorant or other diver when taking wing from the sea.