THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



and then, as ducks are observed to do to frogs in 

 spawning time, at which time some frogs are ob- 

 served to be venomous, so thoroughly washed her, 

 by tumbling her up and down in the water, that 

 he may devour her without danger. And Gesner 

 affirms that a Polonian gentleman did faithfully 

 assure him he had seen two young geese at one 

 time in the belly of a pike. And doubtless a pike 

 in his height of hunger will bite at and devour a 

 dog that swims in a pond ; and there have been ex- 

 amples of it, or the like, for, as I told you, " The 

 belly has no ears when hunger comes upon it." 



The pike is also observed to be a solitary, melan- 

 choly, and a bold fish ; melancholy, because he al- 

 ways 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, or abate 

 fevers, to cure agues, to oppose or expel the in- 

 fection of the plague, and to be many ways medi- 

 cinable 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 



