PLATE XCIX. 
not impossible that in the invention of those fables the ancients allude 
indiscriminately both to this Ray and the analogous species Aquila, 
which also inhabits the seas of the South of Europe, rather than to 
this species individually. Pliny describes both kinds, as does like- 
wise Aristotle, but although the characters of the two fishes were 
well discriminated by those early Naturalists, it is more than probable 
the poets were less precise, as both fishes were known to be endowed 
with the same kind of offensive weapon. 
