82 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



thread : the tail and fins were of a quill, which was shaven 

 thin : the eyes were of two little black beads : and the head 

 was so shadowed, and all of it so curiously wrought, and 

 so exactly dissembled, that it would beguile any sharp- 

 sighted Trout in a swift stream. And this minnow I will 

 now shew you, (look, here it is,) and, if you like it, lend it 

 you, to have two or three made by it ; for they be easily 

 carried about an angler, and be of excellent use : for note, 

 that a large Trout will come as fiercely at a minnow as 

 the highest-mettled hawk doth seize on a partridge, or a 

 greyhound on a hare. I have been told that 160 minnows 

 have been found in a Trout's belly : either the Trout had 

 devoured so many, or the miller that gave it a friend 

 of mine had forced them down his throat after he had 

 taken him. 



Now for Flies ; which is the third bait wherewith Trouts 

 are usually taken. You are to know, that there are so 

 many sorts of flies as there be of fruits: I will name you 

 but some of them; as the dun-fly, the stone-fly, the red- 

 fly, the moor-fly, the tawney-fly, the shell -fly, the cloudy 

 or blackish-fly, the flag-fly, the vine-fly: there be of flies, 

 caterpillars, and canker-flies, and bear-flies ; and indeed 

 too many either for me to name, or for you to remember. 

 And their breeding is so various and wonderful, that I 

 might easily amaze myself, and tire you in a relation 

 of them. 



And, yet, I will exercise your promised patience by 

 saying a little of the caterpillar, or the palmer-fly or 

 worm; that by them you may guess what a work it were, 

 in a discourse, but to run over those very many flies, 

 worms, and little living creatures, with which the sun and 

 summer adorn and beautify the river-banks and meadows, 

 both for the recreation and contemplation of us anglers ; 

 pleasures which, I think, myself enjoy more than any 

 other man that is not of my profession. 



Pliny holds an opinion, that many have their birth, or 



