Of the (jeneration of <iAnimals.

get their living, they flie away into strange places; and there finding no mates oftheir own kind,they seek out a mate of another kind, the likest to her own kindthat (he can meet wich, and couples with them. So then, if you have Hawks thatdescend from the right and best kind, art may more easily work upon them, thenupon such as come of the baser sort. In like manner there may be generated of diverskinds of Eagles divers fowler, as

7 'he Osprey ^ the fowl called Ostifragut^ and Ravens also.

‘Tliny discoursing of the Osprey, faith, That they have no proper kinde of their own,but are descended from divers sorts of Eagles mingled together: and that whichcometh of the Osprey, is of the kind of Ossifragi • and that which comerh of theOssifragi, is a kind of little Ravens, and of these afterward is generated a kind ofgreat Ravens, which have no issue at all: the Author of which assertions beforeTliny^ was Aristotle in his book of Wonders. Oppianm faith, that Land-eagles area bastard brood, which their parents beat out of their nests, and so they are for awhile nourished by some other fowlcs, till at length they forsake the Land, andseek their living in the Sea.

Chap. XVI.

Of the commixtion of divers kinds of fishes.

I T is a very hard thing for a man to know, whether divers kinds of fishes be min-gled together or no; because they live altogether under the waters, so that wecannot observe their doings - especially such as they practise against the ordinarycourse of nature. But if we rightly consider that which hath been ipoken before,wemay easily effect their communion, namely, if we take such fishes as are much givento venery, and match those together which are alike in bigness - in time of breed-ing, and in other such conditions as were before required. Aristotle in his bookof living Creatures, faith, that divers fishes in kind never mingle their feeds to-gether: neither did ever any man fee two fishes of divers kinds couple in generati-on, excepting only these two,

The Skate and the Ray y which engender the Rhinobatos ;

which is so called of both his parents names compounded together. And out ofAristotle , Pliny reportetb, that no fishes of divers kinds mingle their feeds, saveonly the Skate and the Ray; of both which is gendred the fish Rhinobatos, whichis like the Ray in all his former parts, and hath his name in Greek answerable tohis nature; for it is compounded of the names of both his parents. And of thiskind of fiih I never read nor heard any thing besides this. Theodoras Gaz,* translatesthe word Rhinobatos into Squatine-raia in Latine, that is, aSkate-ray: and thoughsome deny that there is any iuch fish, yet surely it is found in the Sea about Naples;and Simon Portus, a very learned Philosopher of Naples, did help me co the sightof one of them- and the picture thereof is yet reserved, and it is to be seen.

Chap. XVII.

How we rnajproduce new andstrange (Jtfonflets.

S Trange and wonderful monsters, andaborsements, or untimely births, may begendred of living Creatures, as by those wayes of which we spake before, name-ly, the confirmation of divers kinds; so also by other means, as by the mixture ofdivers seeds in one wombe, by imagination , or such like causes. Concerning Ima-gination, we will speak hereafter. Now at this time let us fee the wayes of cn-gendring such monsters, which the Ancients have set down, that the ingenious Rei-