144 THE COMPLETE ANGLER 



every month ; and yet the hawk, a bird of prey, as the 

 pike is of fish, breeds but once in twelve months.* And 

 you are to note, that his time of breeding, or spawning, 

 is usually about the end of February, or somewhat later, 

 in March, as the weather proves colder or warmer ; and to 

 note, that his manner of breeding is thus : a he and a she- 

 pike will usually go together out of a river into some ditch 

 or creek, and that there the spawner casts her ejgs, and 

 the melter hovers over her all that time that she is casting 

 her spawn, but touches her not.f 



* Walton here hints at a dispensation of Providence, by which 

 animals of prey are rendered less productive of their species than 

 others, particularly than those living things that furnish food for 

 man. There are numerous exceptions. Animals, that come under 

 the denomination of " vermin," are in many instances exceedingly 

 prolific ; far more so than the useful cow and sheep. The salmon, 

 so valuable as an edible, does not spawn more frequently than the 

 pike ; nor does the pheasant breed oftener than the hawk, though 

 it does more productively. Animals of prey abound in the unin- 

 habited forest and desert, and if some are very rare, and others 

 extinct, in populous countries, we must impute the fact to the 

 destructive devices of man, rather than to limited natural powers 

 of productiveness. E. 



t Very late discoveries of naturalists contradict this hypothesis 

 concerning the generation of fishes, and prove that they are produced 

 by the conjunction of the male and female, as other animals are. 

 See the Philosophical Transactions, vol. XLVIII. part II., for the 

 year 1754, p. 870. H. 



[Discoveries later still, in the shape of repeated experiments, have 

 proved that Walton was more correct than the Philosophic 

 Transactions for the year 1754. The hypothesis that fish we 

 specifically refer to river fish " are produced by the conjunction of 

 the male and female, as other animals are," is rejected by all eminent 

 modern naturalists. No sexual conjunction takes place. The 

 female fish deposits her spawn or ova, which the male fish fecundates 

 by emitting upon it his spawn or milt. The reader will remark, that 

 Walton has already said, at the beginning of this chapter, of pike, 

 " 'Tis not to be doubted but that they are bred, some by generation, 

 and some not." In the present passage : " A he and she-pike will 

 usually go together out of a river into some ditch or creek, and there 

 the spawner casts her eggs, and the milter hovers over her all that 

 time she is casting her spawn, but touches her not " he sets himself 

 right, and gives the real process of pike re-production. One of 

 Walton's greatest errors is, that he places such confidence in what 

 were in his day called learned writers, particularly German ones. 

 They were as bad naturalists in his time as they are now, and for 

 the excellent reason that they indulge in day-dreams about the 



