156 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART i. 



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 so will- 

 ingly ; and you may, therefore, easily believe him to be a bold biter. 



The Perch is of great esteem in Italy, saith Aldrovandus : 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 whole- 

 some 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 apothecaries, being there noted to be very medicin- 

 able against the stone in the reins. These be a part of the com- 

 mendations which some philosophical brains have bestowed upon 

 the fresh-water Perch : yet they commend the Sea-Perch, which 

 is known by having but one fin on his back, of which they say we 

 English see but a few, to be a much better fish. 



The Perch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been credibly 

 informed, to be almost two feet long ; for an honest informer told 

 me, such a one was not long since taken by Sir Abraham Williams, 

 a gentleman of worth, and a brother of the angle, that yet lives, 

 and I wish he may : this was a deep-bodied fish, and doubtless 

 durst have devoured a Pike of half his own length. For I have 

 told you, he is a bold fish ; such a one as but for extreme hunger 

 the Pike will not devour. For to affright the Pike, and save him- 

 self, the Perch will set up his fins, much like as a turkey-cock will 

 sometimes set up his tail. 



But, my scholar, the Perch is not only valiant to defend him- 

 self, but he is, as I said, a bold-biting fish : yet he will not bite at 

 all seasons of the year ; he is very abstemious in winter, yet will 

 bite then in the midst of the day, if it be warm : and note, that 

 all fish bite best about the midst of a warm day in winter. And 

 he hath been observed, by some, not usually to bite till the mul- 

 berry-tree buds ; that is to say, till extreme frosts be past the 

 spring ; for, when the mulberry-tree blossoms, many gardeners 

 observe their forward fruit to be past the danger of frosts ; and 

 some have made the like observation of the Perch's biting. 



But bite the Perch will, and that very boldly. And, as one 

 has wittily observed, if there be twenty or forty in a hole, they 



