14C THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i. 



always swims or rests himself alone, and never 

 swims in shoals or with company, as Roach and 

 Dace, and most other fish do : and bold, because 

 he fears not a shadow, or to see or be seen of any 

 body, as the Trout and Chub, and all other fish do. 



And it is observed by Gesner, that the jaw-bones, 

 and hearts, and galls, of Pikes, are very medicinable 

 for several diseases ; or to stop blood, to abate fevers, 

 to cure agues, to oppose or expel the infection of 

 the plague, and to be many ways medicinable and 

 useful for the good of mankind : but he observes, 

 that the biting of a Pike is venomous and hard to 

 be cured. 



And it is observed, that the Pike is a fish that 

 breeds but once a year, and that other fish, as 

 namely Loaches, do breed oftener : as we are cer- 

 tain tame pigeons do almost 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 

 wanner, and to note, that his manner of breeding 

 is thus : a he and a she-Pike will usually go toge- 

 ther out of a river into some ditch or creek, and 

 that there the spawner casts her eggs, and the 

 melter hovers over her all that time that she is 

 casting her spawn, but touches her not. 



I might say more of this, but it might be thought 

 curiosity or worse, and shall therefore forbear it, 



