192 The Complete Angler 



Nature hath painted the body of this fish with 

 whitish, blackish, brownish spots. They be usually 

 full of eggs or spawn all the summer, I mean the 

 females; and those eggs swell their vents almost 

 into the form of a dug. They begin to spawn about 

 April, and, as I told you, spawn several months in 

 the summer. And in the winter, the Minnow, and 

 Loach, and Bull-head dwell in the mud, as the Eel 

 doth ; or we know not where, no more than we 

 know where the cuckoo and swallow, and other 

 half-year birds, which first appear to us in April, 

 spend their six cold, winter, melancholy months. 

 This BULL-HEAD does usually dwell, and hide him- 

 self, in holes, or amongst st Ties in clear water ; and 

 in very hot days will lie a long time very still, and 

 sun himself, and will be easy to be seen upon any 

 flat stone, or any gravel ; at which time he will 

 suffer an angler to put a hook, baited with a small 

 worm, very near unto his very mouth : and he never 

 refuses to bite, nor indeed to be caught with the 

 worst of anglers. Matthiolus commends him much 

 more for his taste and nourishment, than for his shape 

 or beauty. 



There is also a little fish called a STICKLEBAG, 

 a fish without scales, but hath his body fenced with 

 several prickles. I know not where he dwells in 

 winter ; nor what he is good for in summer, but 

 only to make sport for boys and women-anglers, 

 and to feed other fish that be fish of prey, as 

 Trouts in particular, who will bite at him as at a 

 Penk ; and better, if your hoo 1 : be rightly baited 

 with him, for he may be so baited as, his tail turn- 

 ing like the sail of a wind-mill, will make him turn 

 more quick than any Penk or Minnow can. For 

 note, that the nimble turning of that, or the Minnow 

 is the perfection of Minnow-fishing. To which end, 

 if you put your hook into his mouth, and out at his 



