THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 211 



The minnow hath, when he is in perfect season, and not 

 sick, which is only presently after spawning, a kind of 

 dappled or waved colour, like to a panther, on his sides, in- 

 clining to a greenish and sky-colour, his belly being milk 

 white, and his back almost black or blackish. He is a sharp 

 biter at a small worm, and in hot weather makes excellent 

 sport for young anglers, or boys, or women that love that 

 recreation, and in the spring they make of them excellent 

 minnow-tansies ; for being washed well in salt, and their 

 heads and tails cut off, and their guts taken out, and not 

 washed after, they prove excellent for that use ; that is, being 

 fried with yolks of eggs, the flowers of cowslips, and of prim- 

 roses, and a little tansy ; thus used they make a dainty dish 

 of meat. 



The LOACH is, as I told you, a most dainty fish ; he breeds 

 and feeds in little and clear swift brooks or rills, and lives 

 there upon the gravel, and in the sharpest streams : he grows 

 not to be above a finger long, and no thicker than is suitable 

 to that length. This loach is not unlike the shape of the eel ; 

 he has a beard or wattles 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 



MINNOW,, LOACH, AND l/ni^EIi'd 



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