CHAP. xn.j THE FOURTH DAY. 155 



amongst weeds. And yet, I am sure, he eats pleasantly, and, 

 doubtless, you will think so too, if you taste him. And I shall 

 therefore proceed to give you some few, and but a few, directions 

 how to catch this Tench, of which I have given you these 

 observations. 



He will bite at a paste made of brown bread and honey, or 

 at a marsh-worm or a lob-worm ; he inclines very much to any 

 paste with which tar is mixt, and he will bite also at a smaller 

 worm with his head nipped off, and a cod-worm put on the hook 

 before that worm. And I doubt not but that he will also, in the 

 three hot months, for in the nine colder he stirs not much, bite at 

 a flag-worm, or at a green gentle ; but can positively say no more 

 of the Tench,* he being a fish I have not often angled for j but 

 I wish my honest scholar may, and be ever fortunate when he 

 fishes.6 



PISCATOR. The Perch is a very good, and a very bold biting 

 fish. He is one of the fishes of prey that, like the Pike and 



Chap. XII. Trout, carries his teeth in his mouth, which is very 



On the Perch, large : ^ and he dare venture to kill and devour 

 several other kinds of fish. He has a hooked or hog back, which 

 is armed with sharp and stiff bristles, and all his skin armed, or 

 covered over with thick dry hard scales, and hath, which few 



VARIATIONS. 



6 Here, in ^^ first edition, the dialogue is continued thus : — 



Viator. I thank you, good master: but I pray, sir, since you see it still rains May- 

 butter, give me some observations and directions concerning the Perch, for they say he 

 is both a very good and a bold biting fish, and I would fain learn to fish for him. 



Piscator. You say true, scholar, the Perch is a very good, &c. 



7 In i^^ first edition, in lieu of " which is very large," the words *' not in his throat " 

 occur. 



* The haunts of Tench are nearly the same with those of the Carp. They delight 

 more in ponds than in rivers ; and lie under weeds, near sluices, and at pond-heads. 

 They spawn about the beginning of July ; and are best in season from the beginning of 

 September to the end of May. They will bite all the hot months ; but are best taken 

 in April and May. There are no better baits for this fish than a middle-sized lob-worm, 

 or red-worm, well scoured ; a gentle ; a young wasp-grub, boiled ; or a green worm 

 shook from the boughs of a tree. Use a strong grass, or gut ; and a goose-quill float 

 without a cork, except in rivers, where the cork is always to be preferred. Fish very 

 near the ground : and if you bait with gentles, throw in a few at the taking every fish, 

 which will draw them to your hook, and keep them together. — H. 



The Tench appears to be a native of most parts of the globe. Its general length is 

 about twelve or fourteen inches, but, like most other fishes, it is occasionally found of 

 far greater magnitude ; and we are told that it has sometimes been found to measure two 

 or three feet in length, and to weigh no less than eight, ten, or even twenty pounds. See 

 Shaw's Gen. Zool. vol. v. part i. p. 214. — E. In cleansing an old pond at Thornville 

 Royal in Yorkshire, in 1801, there was discovered under some roots what was at first 

 conjectured to be an otter. It proved, however, to be a Tench of most singular form. 

 " having literally assumed the shape of the hole in which he had of course, been for 

 many years confined. His length from eye to fork was two feet nine inches, his circum- 

 ference, almost to the tail, two feet three inches ; his weight eleven pounds nine ounces. 

 See Tiz.vi\^% Rural Sports^ vol. ii. p. 263, edit. 1802, where an engraving of the fish is 

 given. 



