330 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



The minnow hSith, 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- 

 dining 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 primroses, 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 never rises above the gravel, on which I told you 

 he usually gets his living. 



The Miller's Thumb, or Bull-head, is a fish of no pleasing 

 shape. He is by Gesner compared to the sea-toad fish, for 



