io8 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



otters, that he hath known a pike in extreme hunger fight with 

 one of his otters fora carp that the otter had caught, and was 

 then bringing out of the water. I have told you who relate 

 these things, and tell you they are persons of credit; and shall 

 conclude this observation, by telling you what a wise man has 

 observed, " I Ms a hard thing to persuade the belly, because it 



But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be 

 doubted that ^ pike will devour a fish of his own kind that-skal 1 

 be_big r g'er tha n hU belly or throat will receive, and swallow a 

 par^of him r and let the other part^remam in his mouth till ihe 

 swallowed part_be_ digested, and thelTl^alloTv^nSr"^h pr part 

 that was in his mouth,~and so put it^ over by degrees,; which is 

 not unlike the ox and some other beasts, taking their meat, not 

 out of their mouth immediately into their belly, but first into 

 some place betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it by degrees 

 after, which is called chewing the cud. And, doubtless, pikes 

 will bite whea-they are not hungry : but, as some think, even for 



very nmpr-^-whpn a -tempting- b^jf rnrr|f g n ^pr tn \}}? m. 



And it is observed that the pike will eat venomous things, as 

 some kind of frogs are, and yet live without being harmed by 

 them; for, as some say, he has in him a natural balsam, or anti- 

 dote against all poison. And he has a strange heat, that 

 though it appears to us to be cold, can yet digest or put over 

 any fish-flesh, by degrees, without being sick. And others 

 observe that he never eats the venomous frog till he have first 

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

 spawning time, at which time some frogs are observed 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. AnH rlnnhtWc ^ pike, in his height of hunger, 

 Tvjll bitf nt nnrl dfvnnr a ^">g tTini- ^wirqs m a p^nd ; and there 

 1-myp V>PP^ fyflrnples of it, or the li)^ ; ft*, no L fo1r1 y^", "The 

 belly has no ears whpp bnno-pr Annies iirjon it." 



The pike is also observed to be a solitary, melancholy, and a 



