OBSERVATIONS OF THE MINNOW, THE LOACH 



length. This Loach is not unlike the shape of the Eel ; he has a 

 beard or wattels like a Barbel. He has two fins at his sides, four 

 at his belly, and one at his tail ; he is dappled with many black 

 or brown spots, his mouth is Barbel-like under his nose. This 

 fish is usually full of eggs or spawn, and is by Gesner, and other 

 learned physicians, commended for great nourishment, and to be 

 very grateful both to the palate and stomach of sick persons ; he 

 is to be fished for with a very small worm at the bottom, for he 

 very seldom or never rises above the gravel, on which I told you 

 he usually gets his living. 



The Miller's-Thumb or Bull-Head, is a fish of no pleasing 

 shape. He is by Gesner compared to the Sea- toad-fish, for his 

 similitude and shape. It has a head, big and flat, much greater 

 than suitable to his body ; a mouth very wide and usually gaping. 

 He is without teeth, but his lips are very rough, much like to a 

 file; he hath two fins near to his gills, which be roundish or 

 crested, two fins also under the belly, two on the back, one 

 below the vent, and the fin of his tail is round. Nature hath 

 painted the body of this fish with whitish, blackish, brownish 

 spots. They be usually full of eggs or spawn all the Summer, I 

 mean the females, and those eggs swell their vents almost into 

 the form of a dug. They begin to spawn about April, and as I 

 told you, spawn several months in the Summer; and in the 

 Winter, the Minnow, and Loach, and Bull-Head, dwell in the 

 mud as the Eel doth, or we know not where ; no more than we 

 know where the Cuckoo and Swallow, and other half-year-birds, 

 which first appear to us in April, spend their six cold, winter, 

 melancholy months. This Bull- Head does usually dwell and 

 hide himself in holes, or amongst stones in clear water ; and in 

 very hot days will lie a long time very still, and sun himself, and 

 will be easy to be seen upon any flat stone, or any gravel, at 

 which time he will suffer an Angler to put a hook baited with a 

 small worm, very near unto his very mouth, and he never refuses 

 to bite, nor indeed to be caught with the worst of Anglers. 

 Matthiolus commends him much more for his taste and nourish- 

 ment, than for his shape or beauty. 



There is also a little fish called a Sticklebag : a fish without 

 scales, but hath his body fenced with several prickles. I know 

 not where he dwells in Winter, nor what he is good for in 

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