60 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



makes it defend her from the injuries that they would bring 

 upon her. 



There is also a fish called by -.Elian, in his ninth book " Of 

 Living Creatures," chap. xvi. the Adonis, or darling of the sea; 

 so called, because it is a loving and innocent fish, a fish that 

 hurts nothing that hath life, and is at peace with all the 

 numerous inhabitants of that vast Avatery element ; and truly, I 

 think most anglers are so disposed to most of mankind. 



And there are also lustful and chaste fishes, of which I shall 

 give you examples. 



And, first, what Du Bartas says of a fish called the Sargus, 

 which, because none can express it better than he does, I shall 

 give you in his own words ; supposing it shall not have the less 

 credit for being verse ; for he hath gathered this and other 

 observations out of authors that have been great and industrious 

 searchers into the secrets of nature : 



The adulterous Sargus doth not only change 

 Wives every day, in the deep streams, but, strange ! 

 As if the honey of sea-love delight 

 Could not suffice his ranging appetite, 

 Goes courting she-goats on the grassy shore, 

 Horning their husbands that had horns before. 



And the same author writes concerning the Cantharus, that 

 which you shall also hear in his own words : 



But, contrary, the constant Cantharus 

 Is ever constant to his faithful spouse ; 

 In nuptial duties spending his chaste life 

 Never loves any but his own dear wife. 



Sir, but a little longer and I have done. 



Venator. Sir, take what liberty you think fit, for your 

 discourse seems to be music, and charms me to an attention. 



Piscator. Why, then, sir, I will take a liberty to tell, or 

 rather to remember you, what is said of Turtle-doves : first, 

 that they silently plight their troth and marry ; and that then 

 the survivor scorns, as the Thracian women are said to do, to 

 outlive his or her mate, and this is taken for a truth ; * and if the 

 survivor shall ever couple with another, then not only the living, 

 but the dead, be it either the he or the she, is denied the name 

 and honour of a true Turtle -do ve.f 



* The falsity of this common opinion has been proved by numerous 

 experiments : the whole race of doves and pigeons being the very reverse 

 of constant or continent mates. J. R. 



t Of swans, it is also said, that if either of a pair die, or be otherwise 

 separated from its mate, the other does not long survive ; and that it is 

 chiefly for this reason that the stealing of swans is, by our law, made penal ; 

 so as that " he who stealeth a swnn in an open and common river, lawfully 

 marked ; the same swan shall be hung in a house by the beak ; and he who 

 stole it shall, in recompense thereof, give to the owner so much wheat as 

 may cover all the swan, by putting and turning the wheat upon the head 

 of the swan, until the head of the swan be covered with wheat." COKE'S 

 Beportt, part vii. The case of Swans. 



