PLATE ClII. 
I he specimen of this curious fish in our Museum was purcflasaf 
in the London markets in the month of August, 1807. The size 
was that of a small Thornback, measuring about twenty-three inches 
from the tip of the nose to the extremity of the tail. The figure 
resembled the Homerling Ray, for, like that species, the whole of 
the upper surface was marked with roundish spots of brown upon a 
pale livid ground, and the tail armed with a triple series of promi- 
nent spines, those on each side being equal in point of magnitude 
with the others disposed along the middle. The ocellar spot in the 
centre of each wing was so very distinctly marked, that the fish 
appeared altogether a novelty, and at once struck us that it could 
be no other than the Raja Miraletus of Linnsus, a species described 
as a native of the Mediterranean, but not before noticed by any 
writer as an inhabitant of our seas. The pupil was formed by a 
large and very dark purple spot, encircled by a ring of shining sil- 
very green, which inclined in some directions of light to blue, and was 
enclosed by a broad and dark boundary, composed of five equidistant 
contiguous spots of blackish purple ; the whole resembling in some 
degree the eye of a peacock’s feather.— The subject, as nearly as 
we could learn, was caught on the coast of Sussex. 
Although we present this as the Raja Miraletus of Linnxus with 
perfea confidence, it is not without some hesitation at lcasr, that we 
can offer it as a distinct species. In every respect, except the ocellar 
spot on the wings, it perfectly agrees with the Homerling Ray, and 
may possibly prove, on further examination of other specimens, to 
be only a lusus, or remarkable variety of that fish. We have cer- 
tainly seen vast numbers of the Homerling without ever once ob- 
serving any mark similar to this upon them, but the same character 
has occurred to our notice in another species of Ray, the com- 
