The Flying-fishes in their own element are harassed by attacks of other inhabitants of the ocean, and when under the excitement of fear they take to the air, they are equally exposed to the attack of aquatic Birds, especially the various species of Gulls. In their leap from the water, their fins sustain them like parachutes, with which they beat the air. Mr. Bennett’s description is clear on this point. “I have never,” he says, “been able to see any percussion of the pectoral fins during flight; and the greatest length of time I have seen this Fish on the fly has been thirty seconds by the watch, and the longest flight, mentioned by Captain Basil Hall, has been two hundred yards, but he thinks that subsequent observation has extended the space. The usual height of their flight, as seen above the surface of the water, is from two to three feet, but I have known them come on board at the height of fourteen feet and upwards. And they have been well ascertained to come into the chains of a line-of-battle ship, which is considered to be upwards of twenty feet. But it must not be supposed that they have the power of raising themselves into the air after having left their native element; for on watching them I have often seen them fall much below the elevation at which they first rose from the water; nor have I ever in any instance seen them rise from the height to which they first sprang, for I conceive the elevation they take depends on the power of the first spring.” The brilliant coloring of the Flying-fish would seem designed to point it out to its enemies, against whom it is totally defenceless. A dazzling silvery splendor pervades its surface. The summit of its head, its back, and its sides, are of azure blue; this blue becomes spotted upon the fins and the tail. This Fish is the common prey of the more voracious Fishes, such as the Shark, and also of the Sea-birds; its enemies abound in the air and water. If it succeeds in escaping the Charybdis of the water, the chances are in favor of its coming to grief in the Scylla of the atmosphere; if it escapes the jaws of the Shark, it will probably fall to the share of the Sea-gull.