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A similar power of suspending themselves in the air, without motion of the wings is well-known to belong to many birds, as the vulture, the albatross, the petrels, and others. Besides, it is difficult to conceive of a leap twenty feet high and two hundred yards long; for the flight of the Exocetus has been observed to be carried to this extent, and even farther.
The particular species of flying-fish that had fallen into the clutches of the two starving castaways upon the raft was the Exocetus evolans, or "Spanish flying-fish" of mariners, a well-known inhabitant of the warmer latitudes of the Atlantic. It was one of the largest of its kind, being rather over twelve inches in length, and nearly a pound in weight.
So he tried to propitiate Job in all manner of ways. He hesitated over a child's caul for some time, which was, in his eyes, a far greater treasure than any Exocetus. What use could it be of to a landsman? Then Margaret's voice rang in his ears; and he determined to sacrifice it, his most precious possession, to one whom she loved as she did her grandfather.
He was seen darting towards it with open beak, his talons cruelly extended for its capture; but, notwithstanding all his activity, the white object that shot glittering past him, and dropped into the sea far beyond, proclaimed to the Catamarans that the Exocetus had escaped.
But "love me, love my dog," was Will Wilson's motto, only his version was, "Believe me, believe Jack Harris"; and the remark was not so soothing to him as it was intended to have been. "It's the Exocetus; one of the Malacopterygii Abdominales," said Job, much interested. "Ay, there you go! you're one o' them folks as never knows beasts unless they're called out o' their names.
He feared the young man would not appreciate any of his duplicate Araneides; not even the great American Mygale, one of his most precious treasures; or else he would gladly have bestowed any duplicate on the donor of a real dried Exocetus. What could he do for him? He could ask Margaret to sing. Other folks beside her old doting grandfather thought a deal of her songs.
Their natural habitat, however, is in the warm latitudes of the ocean; and only there are they met with in large "schools," and seen with any frequency taking their aerial flight. For a long time there was supposed to be only one, or at most two, species of the Exocetus; but it is now certain there are several perhaps as many as half a dozen distinct from each other.
In the face of such a sight as this, which is of everyday occurrence in these latitudes, how trivial and misleading the statements made by the natural history books seem. They tell their readers that the EXOCETUS VOLITANS "does not fly; does not flutter its wings; can only take a prolonged leap," and so on.
It seemed, however, as if the partial relief from hunger only aggravated the kindred appetite from which the occupants of the raft had already begun to suffer. Perhaps the salt-water, mingled with the saline juices of the fish, aided in producing this effect. In any case, it was not long after they had eaten the Exocetus before both felt thirst in its very keenest agony.
They are of the genus Exocetus, and in form and other respects have a considerable resemblance to the common pike. There are several species of them inhabiting different parts of the tropical seas; and sometimes individuals, in the summer, have been seen as far north as the coast of Cornwall in Europe, and on the banks of Newfoundland in America.
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