68 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



to all chaste ears, and therefore I pray hearken to 

 what Du Bartas sings of the mullet : 



" But for chaste love the mullet hath no peer; 

 For if the fisher hath surprised her pheer, 1 

 As mad with woe, to shore she followeth, 

 Prest 2 to consort him, both in life and death." 



On the contrary, what shall I say of the house- 

 cock, which treads any hen, and then, contrary to 

 the swan, the partridge, and pigeon, takes no care 

 to hatch, to feed, or cherish his own brood, but is 

 senseless, though they perish ? And 't is consider- 

 able that the hen, which, because she also takes 

 any cock, expects it not, who is sure the chick- 

 ens be her own, hath by a moral impression her 

 care and affection to her own brood more than 

 doubled, even to such a height that our Saviour, 

 in expressing his love to Jerusalem (Matt, xxiii. 

 37), quotes her for an example of tender affection ; 

 as his father had done Job for a pattern of 

 patience. 



And to parallel this cock, there be divers fishes 

 that cast their spawn on flags or stones, and then 

 leave it uncovered, and exposed to become a prey 

 and be devoured by vermin, or other fishes. But 

 other fishes, as namely the barbel, take such care 

 for the preservation of their seed, that, unlike to 

 the cock or the cuckoo, they mutually labor, both 

 the spawner and the melter, to cover their spawn 



1 Fellow or mate. 



2 Prepared, ready ; Fr. Pret. 



