CHAP. xii. THE FOURTH DAY. 131 



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 himself, the pearch will set up his fins, much like 

 as a turkey-cock will sometimes set up his tail. 



But, my scholar, the pearch is not only valiant to defend 

 himself, 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 on the pearch's biting. 



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 being, 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. 



And the baits for this bold fish are not many : I mean, he 

 will bite as well at some or at any of these three, as at any 

 or all others whatsoever, a worm, a minnow, or a little frog, 

 of which you may find many in hay-time ; and of worms, the 

 dunghill-worm, called a brandling, I take to be best, being 

 well scoured in moss or fennel ; or he will bite at a worm 

 that lies under cow-dung, with a bluish head. And if you 

 rove for a pearch with a minnow, then it is best to be alive, 

 you sticking your hook through his back fin, or a minnow 

 with the hook in his upper lip, and letting him swim up 

 and down about mid-water, or a little lower, and you still 



