THE PIKE. 213 



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. And doubtless a 

 pike, in his height of hunger, will bite at and devour a dog 

 that swims in a pond ; and there have been examples of it, 

 or the like ; for, as I told you, " The belly has no ears when 

 hunger comes upon it." 



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

 a bold fish : melancholy, because he always swims or rests 

 himself alone, and never swims in shoals or with company, 

 as roach and dace and most other fish do ; and bold, because 

 he fears not a shadow, or to see or be seen of anybody, as 

 the trout and chub and all other fish do. 



And it is observed by Gesner, that the jaw-bones and 

 hearts and galls of pikes are very medicinable for several 

 diseases ; or to stop blood, to abate fevers, to cure agues, to 

 oppose or expel the infection of the plague, and to be many 

 ways medicinable and useful for the good of mankind ; but 

 he observes, that the biting of the pike is venomous, and 

 hard to be cured. 



And it is observed, that the pike is a fish that breeds but 

 once a year ; and that other fish, as namely loaches, do breed 

 oftener, as we are certain tame pigeons do almost every 

 month ; and yet the hawk, a bird of prey, as the pike is of 

 fish, breeds but once in twelve months. And you are to 

 note, that his time of breeding, or spawning, is usually about 

 the end of February, or somewhat later, in March, as the 

 weather proves colder or warmer; and to note, that his 

 manner of breeding is thus : a he and a she-pike will usually 

 go together out of a river into some ditch or creek, and that 

 there the spawner casts her eggs, and the melter hovers over 



