100 RAIID.E. 



Oppian speaks of it with the " voracious Dog-fish," the Shark-tribe, the 

 Dolphin {Delphinus, L.), and the Seal, as being viviparous. 



'AXX' ocra fiiv jiakaKeia (jiaTL^erai, .... 



raS' d)o(f)6poi(nv Sums wSttri fieXovrai. 

 'Ek Se Kvvos Xd^poio Kal 'AIETOY, oaa re (f)v\a 

 KKfi^ovTai creXap^eta, (cat l^dwofiav ^acrtXrjcov 

 Af\(f>iva)v, (})a)KT}s re /3oa)7rtSos avTiKa TratSe? 

 'E/c yeveTrjs avexovaiv ioiKores oiai roKevcriv. 



0pp. Hal. A. 638—645. 



When it is considered further, that in the Mediterranean the Eagle- 

 ray is a well-known fish, at Rome and Naples actually called " the Eagle"" 

 at this very day, and that, except the rare Trygon Altavela, there is no 

 other fish in those seas to which the name would be appropriate, — the mo- 

 dern Cephaloptera, with its horn-like protuberances, finding a more probable 

 appellation in the BovgotOx of Aristotle and Oppian,* — it will appear that 

 Rondelet's objections to Salviani's determination on this point, chiefly be- 

 cause he found the flesh soft, whilst Galen, after Philotimus, affirms that 

 of the Aquila to be hard like the Lamia and Conger, are, pace tanti viri, 

 very futile. Indeed, the French naturalist seems to have been altogether 

 in a bad humour whilst he wrote his history of this fish. He attacks his 

 rival Salviani's figure on a point in which, like every other, it is assuredly 

 far better and more accurate than his own ; indicating by the greater sharp- 

 ness of the muzzle, that it was taken from a fresh unshriveled young ex- 

 ample: whilst he agrees with him in comparing its head to a Toad's ; to 

 which, were his criticism and his figure just, it would have much less 

 resemblance than it actually has. Fabius Columna has not ill compared its 

 head to a Swift's (Cypselus murarius, Tem. ; Hirundo Apus, L.) : Belon 

 less happily to a Kite's or Eagle's. But Rondelet's and Salviani's reference 

 is upon the whole the best ; and by the Genoese, say Rondelet and Wil- 

 lughby, it is called Pesce Rospo, the Toad-fish, from its head, as well as 

 Pesce Ratto, the Rat-fish, in allusion to its tail. It is occasionally called 

 by this last name also in Madeira; though the appellation belongs rightly 

 to the Trygon Pastinaca. Its French names are, according to Cuvier, 

 L'Aigle de mer, Mourine, Rate-penade, Boeuf ; and Rondelet adds those 

 of Glorieuse, in supposed allusion to its pompous, stately motions in the 

 water, Tarefrauke, Falco, Erango, and Ferraza : this last being the name 

 by which Risso relates that it is known at Nice. 



* Arist. Hist. E. 2. 2, above quoted; and 0pp. Hal. a. 103, /3. 141-166, y. 139.— Rondelet 

 (Hist. Pise. 348), and after him Pennant (Brit. Zool. iii. 84), have suggested that Oppian's fish 

 might be some enormous Skate or Ray {Rata Batis, L. or i?. oan/rrhyncus^ Mont.) But, although this 

 might consist with the first of the passages referred to, it is negatived by the words ih^vraro; •jca.t- 

 Tiffffi ft.ir ]yjuiityi, from the second. 



