CHAP. V. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 77 



ticular fishes. But for the Trout, the dew-worm, which 

 some also call the lob-worm, and the brandling, are the 

 chief; and especially the first for a great Trout, and the 

 latter for a less. There be also of lob-worms, some 

 called squirrel-tails, (a worm that has a red head, a streak 

 down the back, and a broad tail,) which are noted to be 

 the best, because they are the toughest and most lively, 

 and live longest in the water ; for you are to know that a 

 dead worm is but a dead bait, and like to catch nothing, 

 compared to a lively, quick, stirring worm. And for a 

 brandling, he is usually found in an old dung-hill, or 

 some very rotten place near to it, but most usually in 

 cow-dung, or hog's dung, rather than horse-dung which 

 is somewhat too hot and dry for that worm. But the best 

 of them are to be found in the bark of the tanners, which 

 they cast up in heaps after they have used it about their 

 leather. 



There are also divers other kinds of worms, which, for 

 colour and shape, alter even as the ground out of which 

 they are got; as the marsh-worm, the tag-tail, the flag- 

 worm, the dock-worm, the oak worm, the gilt-tail, the 

 twachel or lob-worm, 1 (which of all others is the most 

 excellent bait for a Salmon) and too many to name, even 

 as many sorts as some think there be of several herbs or 



(1) To avoid confusion, it may be necessary to remark, that the same kind of 

 worm i, in differrut places, known by different names : thus the marsh and the 

 meadow-worm are the same; and the lob-worm or twachel is also called the 

 dew-worm, and the garden-worm ; and the dock-worm is, in some places, called 

 the flag-worm. 



The tag tail is found in March and April, in marled lands or meadows, after 

 a shower of rain ; or in a morning, when the weather is calm, and not cold. 



To find the oak-worm, beat on an oak tree that grows over a high-way or bare 

 place; and they will fall for you to gather. 



To find the dock-worm, go to an old pond or pit, and pull up some of the 

 flags ; shake the roots in the water ; and amongst the fibres that grow from the 

 roots you will find little husks, or cases, of a reddish or yellowish colour ; open 

 these carefully with a pin. and take from thence a little worm, pale and yellow, 

 or white, like a gentle, but longer and slenderer, with rows of feet down his 

 belly, aud a red head : this is the dock or flag worm ; an excellent bait for Gray, 

 ling, Tench, Bream, Carp, Roach, and Dace. 



