CHAPTER XII 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE PERCH J AND DIRECTIONS HOW 

 TO FISH FOR HIM 



[Jfourtb H>ap] 



Pise. The Perch is a very good and a very bold biting 

 fish. He is one of the fishes of prey that, like the pike 

 and trout, carries his teeth in his mouth, which is very 

 large : and he dare venture to kill and devour several 

 other kinds of fish. He has a hooked or hog back, which 

 is armed with sharp and stiff bristles, and all his skin 

 armed or covered over with thick dry hard scales, and 

 hath, which few other fish have, two fins on his back. 

 He is so bold that he will invade one of his own kind, 

 which the pike will not do willingly, and you may there- 

 fore easily believe him to be a bold biter. 



The perch is of great esteem in Italy, saith Aldro- 

 vandus, and especially the least are there esteemed a 

 dainty dish. And Gesner prefers the perch and pike 

 above the trout, or any fresh-water fish : he says the 

 Germans have this proverb, " More wholesome than a 

 perch of Rhine " ; and he says the river perch is so 

 wholesome that physicians allow him to be eaten by 

 wounded men, or by men in fevers, or by women in 

 childbed. 



He spawns but once a year, and is, by physicians, held 

 very nutritive ; yet, by many, to be hard of digestion. 

 They abound more in the River Po, and in England, 

 says Rondeletius, than other parts, and have in their 

 brain a stone which is in foreign parts sold by apothe- 



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