A handbook to the cases illustrating animal locomotion / Horniman Museum and Library.

  • Horniman Museum
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A handbook to the cases illustrating animal locomotion / Horniman Museum and Library. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    remarked are nothing but the vibrations caused by the resistance of the air. Two or three hundred yards would appear to be a fair flight for these fish, although it has been stated that this distance may be doubled upon occasion. They rarely rise more than a few feet above the water, although they overtop succeeding waves by being carried up by the pressure of the disturbed air, and in breezy weather may be even carried on to the deck of a ship by the same cause. The fish does not appear to have any power of voluntarily changing its course in the air, although this may be altered by the tail incidentally dipping into a wave, or by diversion of the air currents. It will be observed in looking at the specimen of the flying fish that the lower lobe of the tail-fin is markedly larger than the upper lobe. Vigorous use of such a fin will give the fish an upward bias in the water, and, in the absence of correction by the pectorals, will project it into the air. The flight is rapid, ten miles an hour or more it has been said, but the speed gradually decreases until the fish falls back into the water. The flying gurnards, represented in the collections by Dactylopterus volitans, have acquired their power of “ flight ” quite independently of the flying fish. They do not appear either to frequent the surface waters or to leave the water on such frequent or long extended flights as the true flying-fish. REPTILIA.—In the pretty little Malayan parachuting lizard, miscalled the flying dragon ” (Draco volans), there is a membranous expansion of the side of the body, which is sup- ported by six ribs on each side. The parachute, whose some- what concave under-surface increases its supporting power, can be closely folded up against the body when not in use. The lizard is essentially arboreal in its habits, and when springing from tree to tree or from branch to branch it moves very rapidly. When the parachute is extended its brilliant colouring is said to resemble some gorgeous tropical flower. The fringed gecko (Ptychozoon homalocephalum) has an expansion of the skin of the sides of the body and tail, and the toes are webbed. This lizard is said to use its parachute as an aid in j umping from branch to branch, as does the flying dragon. * MAMMALIA.—Amongst the mammals parachuting forms are found in the orders Rodentia, Insectivora, and Marsupialia. In all cases more or less of the skin of the side of the body is expanded to form the parachute., In looking at these para- chuting mammals it is difficult to believe that they are not all related species; indeed, examination of their structure * This expansion causes the outline of the lizard’s body to merge into the bark when the anitnal is clinging to a tree. It would thus appear to sene the double purpose of concealment and parachuting.
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