THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 61 



And to parallel this land rarity, and teach mankind moral 

 faithfulness, and to condemn those that talk of religion, and yet 

 come short of the moral faith of fish and fowl men that violate 

 the law affirmed by St Paul, (Rom. ii. 14, 15.) to be writ in 

 their hearts, and which, he says, shall at the last day condemm 

 and leave them without excuse, . I pray hearken to what Du 

 Bartas sings, (in the Fifth Day,) for the hearing of such conjugal 

 faithfulness will be music to all chaste ears ; and therefore I pray 

 hearken to what Du Bartas sings of the Mullet : 



But for chaste love the Mullet hath no peer ; 

 For, if the fisher hath surprised her pheer,* 

 As mad with wo, to shore she followeth, 

 Prest f to consort him, both in life and death. 



On the contrary, what shall I say of the House Cock, which 

 treads any hen, and then, contrary to the Swan, the Partridge, 

 and Pigeon, takes no care to hatch, to feed, or to cherish his own 

 brood, but is senseless, though they perish. J And 'tis con- 

 siderable, that the Hen, (which, because she also takes any cock, 

 expects it not,) who is sure the chickens be her own, hath, by 

 a moral impression, her care and affection to her own brood 

 more than doubled, even to such a height, that our Saviour, in 

 expressing his love to Jerusalem, (Matt, xxiii. 37.) quotes her 

 for an example of tender affection ; as his Father had done Job 

 for a pattern of patience. 



And to parallel this Cock, there be divers fishes that cast their 

 spawn on flags or stones, and then leave it uncovered and exposed 

 to become a prey and be devoured by vermin or other fishes. 

 But other fishes, as namely the Barbel, take such care for the 

 preservation of their seed, that (unlike to the Cock or the Cuckoo) 

 they mutually labour, both the spawner and the melter, to cover 

 their spawn with sand, or watch it, or hide it in some secret 

 place, unfrequented by vermin or by any fish but themselves. 



Sir, these examples may, to you and others, seem strange ; 

 but they are testified, some by Aristotle, some by Pliny, some 

 by Gesner, || arid by many others of credit, and are believed and 



* Or fellow ; so bod-pheer, bed-fellow. 



f Prest, from the French, pret, Lat. paratus, ready, prepared. So Psalm 

 civ. old version, 



He maketh his spirites as heralds to 0, 



And lightnings to servcj we see also prest. 



Vide Glostary to Robert of Gloucester and to Peter Langtoft, edit Hearne. 



t Capons, however, and even cocks, may be taught to feed chickens even 

 better than their own mothers, as was proved by the experiments of the 

 celebrated Reaumur, as I have detailed at length in my Domestic Habits of 

 Eirds.-J.R. 



^ Neither fishes nor insects take any care of their young beyond deposit- 

 ing their eggs in a place where they are likely, when hatched, to procure 



|| Of these three Aristotle was the only original observer, and may be 

 trusted where he did not depend on hearsay. Pliny and Gesner were mer 

 compilers. J. R. 



