82 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



1 " Fitchet " and " fulimart " (foul mart or smell) are two names 

 for the polecat, an animal of the weasel tribe, very destructive to 

 game, and still common. By " ferret" Walton probably means the 

 weasel ; the mould-warp is the mole. The other " vermin " of this 

 tribe common in England are the martens and the stoat. 



8 Moses's directions are simply permissory, not directory : " These 

 shall ye eat : whatsoever hath fins and scales," and not those fish 

 without (Leviticus xi. 9, 10). 



9 Some of Walton's editors have laughed at him for his credulity; 

 but there are wonders as great as those which he mentions, which 

 are undoubted facts witness the geysers, petrifying springs, &c. 



10 "Ephemera," in his edition of Walton, says that the state- 

 ments with respect to the cuttle-fish, and others which follow, have 

 no foundation in fact. He apparently was not aware of the exist- 

 ence of the " fishing frog " (Lophius piscatorius\ which has two 

 long thin rays proceeding from the top of its head, which look like 

 long silvery worms. This fish " lying on the bottom, stirs up the 

 mud with its fins, and, thus concealed, elevates its bait-like appen- 

 dages, moving them temptingly to and fro, until a sufficient number 

 of curious spectators or intending diners have collected, when it 

 opens its immense mouth and swallows them all." PENNELL. 



So does the Silurus giants and the " star-gazer." The hermit or 

 " soldier-crab " lives in the cast-off shells of other fish, changing his 

 house for a bigger one as he grows in size. 



u It is a very common thing when a pair of birds are kept in 

 captivity, and one of them dies, for the other to refuse food and 

 pine away. 



12 Asa rule, when fish have deposited their spawn, they take no 

 further care of it. but leave it to its fate. The Silurus giant's, which 



