198 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



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 Toadfish, for his 

 similitude and shape. It has a head big and flat, much greater 

 than suitable to his body ; a mouth very wide, and usually 

 gaping ; he is without teeth, but his lips are very rough, much 

 like to a file. He hath two fins near to his gills, which be 

 roundish or crested ; two fins also under the belly, two on the 

 back, one below the vent, and the fin of his tail is round. 

 Nature hath painted the body of this fish with whitish, blackish, 

 and brownish spots. They be usually full of eggs, or spawn, 

 all the summer, I mean the females ; and those eggs swell their 

 vents almost into the form of a dug. They begin to spawn about 

 April, and, as I told you, spawn severaj months in the summer. 

 And in the winter, the Minnow, and Loach, and Bull-head, 

 dwell in the mud, as the Eel doth ; or we know not where, no 

 more than we know where the cuckoo and swallow, and other 

 half-year birds, which first appear to us in April, spend their 

 six cold, winter, melancholy months. This Bull-head does 

 usually dwell, and hide himself, in holes, or amongst stones in 

 clear water ; and in very hot days will lie along time very still, 

 and sun himself, and will be easy to be seen upon any flat stone, 

 or any gravel ; at which time he will suffer an angler to put a 

 hook, baited with a small worm, very near unto his very mouth : 

 and he never refuses to bite, nor, indeed, to be caught with the 

 worst of anglers. Matthiolus commends him much more for his 

 taste and nourishment, than for his shape or beauty.* 



* Since Walton wrote, there has been brought into England, from Ger- 

 many, a species of small fish, resembling Carp in shape and colour, called 

 Crusians, with which many ponds are now plentifully stocked. 



There have also been brought hither from China, those beautiful 

 creatures, gold and silver fish : the first are of an orange colour, with very 

 shining scales, and finely variegated with black and dark brown ; the 

 silver fish are of the colour of silver tissue, with scarlet fins, with which 

 colour they are curiously marked in several parts of the body. 



These fish are usually kept in ponds, basins, and small reservoirs of 

 water, to which they are a delightful ornament. And it is now a very 

 common practice to keep them in a large glass vessel like a punch bowl, 

 with fine gravel strewed at the bottom, frequently changing the water, 

 and feeding them with bread and gentles. Those who can take more 

 pleasure in angling for, than in beholding them, which I confess I could 

 never do, may catch them with gentles; but though costly, they are but 

 coarse food. 



