CHAP. XIV.] THE FOURTH DAY. 167 



the female, whose spawn is very hurtful, as I will presently declare 

 to you. 



They flock together like sheep, and are at the worst in April, 

 about which time they spawn ; but quickly grow to be in season. 

 He is able to live in the strongest swifts of the water : and in 

 summer they love the shallowest and sharpest streams : and love 

 to lurk under weeds, and to feed on gravel, against a rising 

 ground ; and will root and dig in the sands with his nose like a 

 hog, and there nests himself : yet sometimes he retires to deep 

 and swift bridges, or floodgates, or weirs ; where he will nest 

 himself amongst piles, or in hollow places ; and take such hold 

 of moss or weeds, that be the water never so swift, it is not able 

 to force him from the place that he contends for.^ This is his 

 constant custom in summer, when he and most living creatures 

 sport themselves in the sun : but at the approach of winter, then 

 he forsakes the swift streams and shallow waters, and, by degrees, 

 retires to those parts of the river that are quiet and deeper ; in 

 which places, and I think about that time, he spawns ; and, as I 

 have formerly told you, with the help of the melter, hides his 

 spawn or eggs in holes, which they both dig in the gravel ; and 

 then they mutually labour to cover it with the same sand, to pre- 

 vent it from being devoured by other fish. 



There be such store of this fish in the river Danube, that 

 Rondeletius says they may, in some places of it, and in some 

 months of the year, be taken, by those who dwell near to the 

 river, with their hands, eight or ten load at a time. He says, 

 they begin to be good in May, and that they cease to be 

 so in August : but it is found to be otherwise in this nation. 

 But thus far we agree with him, that the spawn of a Barbel, if 

 it be not poison, as he says, yet that it is dangerous meat, and 

 especially in the month of May,* which is so certain, that Gesner 



VARIATIONS. 



3 With the exception abready noticed, the preceding observations on the Earhel were 

 printed in the j^£:fl«rf edition, as in the text: but in the_;f?-j/ they were as follows: 

 " Piscator, The Barbel is .so called, says Gesner, from, or by reason of his beard, or 

 wattles at his mouth, his mouth being under his nose orxhaps, and he is one of the leather- 

 mouthed fish that has his teeth in his throat : he loves to live in very swift streams and 

 where it is gravelly, and in the gravel will root or dig with his nose like a hog, and there 

 nest himself taking so fast hold of any weeds or moss that grows on stones, or on piles 

 about weirs or floodgates, or bridges, that the water is not able, be it ever so swift, to 

 force him from the place which he seems to contend for. This is his constant custom," 

 &c. 



^ and Gesner declares, it had an ill effect upon him to the endangering of his life. — 

 i.st edit. 



