The Dolphin is also a formidable enemy to the much-persecuted Flying-fish. Captain Basil Hall gives a very animated description of their mode of attack. He was in a prize, a low Spanish schooner, rising not above two feet and a half out of the water. “Two or three Dolphins had ranged past the ship in all their beauty. The ship in her progress through the water had put up a shoal of these Flying-fish which took their flight to windward. A large Dolphin which had been keeping company with us abreast of the weather gangway at the depth of two or three fathoms, and as usual glistening most beautifully in the sun, no sooner detected our poor friends take wing than he turned his head towards them, darted to the surface, and leaped from the water with a velocity little short, as it seemed to us, of a cannon ball. But though the impetus with which he shot himself into the air gave him an initial velocity greatly exceeding that of the Flying-fish, the start which his fated prey had got enabled them to keep ahead of him for a considerable time. The length of the Dolphin’s first spring could not be less than ten yards, and after he fell we could see him gliding like lightning through the water for a moment, when he again rose, and shot upwards with considerably greater velocity than at first, and of course to a still greater distance.
“In this manner the merciless pursuer seemed to strike along the sea with fearful rapidity, while his brilliant coat sparkled and flashed in the sun quite splendidly. As he fell headlong in the water at the end of each leap, a series of circles were sent far over the surface, for the breeze, just enough to keep the royals and topgallant studding-sails extended, was hardly felt as yet below.
“The group of wretched Flying-fishes, thus hotly pursued, at length dropped into the sea; but we were rejoiced to observe that they merely touched the top of the swell, and instantly set off again in a fresh and even more vigorous flight. It was particularly interesting to observe that the direction they took now was quite different from the one in which they had set out, showing that they had detected their fierce enemy, who was following them with giant steps along the waves and was gaining rapidly upon them. His pace, indeed, was two or three times as swift as theirs, poor little things! and the greedy Dolphin was fully as quick-sighted; for whenever they varied their flight in the smallest degree, he lost not the tenth part of a second in shaping his course so as to cut off the chase; while they, in a manner really not unlike that of the Hare, doubled more than once upon the pursuer. But it was soon plainly to be seen that the strength and confidence of the Flying-fish were fast ebbing; their flights became shorter and shorter, and their course more fluttering and uncertain, while the leaps of the Dolphin seemed to grow more vigorous at each bound.