169 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



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 pearch : yet they commend the sea-pearch, winch 

 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 pearch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been credi- 

 bly informed, to be almost two foot long ; for an honrst informer 

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

 Williams, a gentlem.an of worth, and a brother of the angle, that 

 yet livf s, and I wish he may : this was a deep bodi.'d fish, and 

 doubth ss durst have devoured a pike of half his own length : for 

 1 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 himself, the p^^arch will set up his fins, much like as a tur- 

 key-cock will sometimes set up his tail. 



But, my Scholar, the pearch 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 

 mulberry-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 pearch's bit- 



ins- 



But bite the pearch will, and that very boldly ; and, as one 

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

 may be at one standing all catched one after another ; they be- 

 ing, as he says, like the wicked of the world, not afraid, though 

 their fellows and companions perish in their sight. And you 

 may observe, that they are not like the solitary pike ; but love to 

 accompany one another, and march together in troops. 



