192 TIIE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART It 



him, lie had seen two young geese, at one time, in the belly 

 of a pike. 1 And doubtless a pike, in his height of hunger, 

 will bite at and devour a dog that swims in a pond ; and 

 there have been examples of it, or the like ; for as I told 

 you, " The belly has no ears when hunger comes upon it." 



The pike is also observed to be a solitary, melancholv, 

 and a bold fish; melancholy, because he always swims or 

 rests himself alone ; and never swims in shoals, or with 

 company, as roach and dace, and most other fish do ; 

 and bold, because he fears not a shadow, or to see or 

 be seen of anybody, as the trout and chub, and all other 

 fish do. 



And it is observed by Gesner, that the jaw-bones, and 

 hearts, and galls of pikes, are very medicinable for several 

 diseases, or to stop blood, or abate fevers, to cure agues, to 

 oppose or expel the infection of the plague, and to be many 

 ways medicinable and useful for the good of mankind ; but 

 he observes, that the biting of a pike is venomous, and hard 

 to be cured. 



And it is observed, that the pike is a fish that breeds but 

 once a year, and that other fish, as namely, loaches, do breed 

 oftener, and so, we are certain, tame pigeons do almost 

 every month ; and yet the hawk, a bird of prey, as the pike 

 is a fish, breeds but once in twelve months. And you are 

 to note, that his time of breeding or spawning, is usually 

 about the end of February, or, somewhat later, in March, as 

 the weather proves colder or warmer ; and to note, that his 

 manner of breeding is thus ; a he and she pike will usually 

 go together out of a river into some ditch or creek, and that 

 there the spawner casts her eggs, and the melter hovers over 

 her all that time she is casting her spawn, but touches 

 her not. 2 



I might say more of this : but it might be thought curi- 

 osity or worse ; and shall, therefore, forbear it ; and, take 



1 I used annually to lose many young ducks, some of them of good size, 

 in the waters of Hampton Court Gardens, in consequence of pike preying on 

 them.- ED. 



2 A paper in the 'Philosophical Transactions for 1754,' contradicts 

 Walton's account, and asserts that fish generate like other animals ; but 

 Walton is now found to be right. No sexual conjunction takes place. 

 The female deposits her spawn which the male fecundates by coA r ering it 

 with his milt. ED. 



