Many of them lodged on the men’s hats

John Harriott in 1809 recounts, presumably from his own observation, the following phenomenon:

"In a heavy shower of rain, while our army was on the march, a short distance from Pondicherry, a quantity of small fish fell with the rain, to the astonishment of all. Many of them lodged on the men’s hats; when General Smith, who commanded, desired them to be collected, and afterwards, when we came to our [camping] ground, they were dressed, making a small dish that was served up and eaten at the general’s table. These were not flying fish, they were dead, and falling from the common well-known effect of gravity; but how they ascended, or where they existed, I do not pretend to account. I merely relate the simple fact."

- "Rains of Fishes", By E. W. Gudger. Natural History, November-December 1921.