PERCH AND PERCH FISHING 215 



followed and copied him, was to angle for perch in 

 May, at a time when the fish had recently spawned, and 

 were naturally ravenous for fo<5d and easy of capture. 

 Viator begs Piscator^ c Since you see it still rains May 

 butter, to give me some observations and directions 

 concerning the perch. For they say he is both a 

 very good and a bold-biting fish.' 'You say true, 

 Scholar,' answers Piscator^ ' the perch is a very good 

 and a very bold-biting fish. He is one of the fishes 

 of prey which, like the pike and trout, carries his 

 teeth in his mouth, not in his throat.' Piscator then 

 goes on to give the valuable information that in his 

 brain the perch carries a stone, ' which is in forrain 

 parts sold by Apothecaries, being there noted to be 

 very medicinable against the stone in the reins.' He 

 also informs Viator that, notwithstanding these merits, 

 some persons commend the sea-perch, ' of which they 

 say, we English see but a few, to be a much better 

 fish.' 



Equally reliable is Walton's statement that the 

 perch is ' a bold fish, such a one as, but for extreme 

 hunger, the Pike will not devour,' and that he is very 

 abstemious in winter. As it is in winter that the 

 perch gather in deep holes in large numbers, it is 

 somewhat contradictory to read after this statement 

 that l if there be twentie or fortie in a hole, they may 



