THE PERCH. 273 



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 of 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 an- 

 other, 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 keeping him to about that depth by a cork, which 

 ought not to be a very little one ; and the like way you are 

 to fish for the pearch with a small frog, your hook being 



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