ture known as The Water Leaper or llamhigyn y dwr since I first saw it illustrated in Brian Froud's book Faeries (1978).The creature was later famously featured in Karl Shuker's book From Flying Toads to Snakes with Wings (1997).
The creature was said to have a face like a toad and to leap out of the water, even though it had no legs. Instead it had large wings.
The solution is that the witnesses are describing a sort of freshwater stingray. Stingrays have raised eyes and faces like toads, and they are known to leap out of water to rid themselves of parasites.
Incidentally, the originals for the African Kongamato and the South American Cuero (hide) were likewise wide flat o
r winged legless creature
s that leaped out of th
e water: the Kongamato is described as living in the water and being a danger to small canoes because of its unexpected leaping up.They are leaping up like mini-manta rays, and one of the alternate names for the Cuero is even Manta.
It is al
so possible that Cueros are 'Covered with eyes' because some South American rays are indeed covered with markings that look like eyespots (ocelli)
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