Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1894 — Do Flying Fish Fly? [ARTICLE]

Do Flying Fish Fly?

A very common error made in natural histories where this fish is mentioned is that it does not fly. “Its supposed flight is nothing more than a prolonged leap; it cannot deviate from a stright line, and cannot rise a second time without entering the water.” ThiSj briefly, is the sort of thing one meets with in textbooks where reference is made to this fish.' The simplest way of dealing with it is the professor's method of answeiing the query of the French Academy whether their definition of a crab was correct The story is so well known that it does not need repetition. As the result of personal observation extending over a good many years, I assert that the exocetus does fly. I have often seen a flying fish rise 200 yards off, describe a semi-circle, and, meeting the ship, rise twenty feet in the air perpendicularly, at the same time darting off at right angles to its previous course. Then, after another long flight, when just about to enter the water, the gaping jaws of a dolphin emerging from the sea gave it pause and it rose again, returning almost directly upon its former course. This procedure is so common that it is a marvel it is not more widely known. A flying fish of mature size can fly 1,000 yards. It does not flap its fins as a bird, but they vibrate, like the wings of an insect, with a distinct hum. The only thing which terminates flight involuntarily is the drying of its tin membranes and their consequent stiffening.;