334 
The Animal-Lore of Shalcspeare’s Time. 
bestowed on this fish on account of the harshness of its- 
scales. The title cernua given by Cardan has been ex¬ 
plained by some to signify the downward position of 
its head. Thomas Muffett writes (Healths Improvement, 
p.187):- 
“ Ruffs or ruggels are not much unlike to perches, for the goodness 
of their flesh though their skin he rougher: the best live in sandy 
places where they wax exceeding fat and sweet.” 
Izaak Walton endorses this opinion of the fine flavour of 
this little fish. 
Drayton, singing the praises of the German Ocean, thus 
enumerates the fish taken on the east coast of England:— 
“ What fish can any shore, or British sea-town show 
That’s eatable to us, that it doth not bestow 
Abundantly thereon ? The herring king of sea, 
The faster feeding cod, the mackarel brought by May, 
The dainty sole, and plaice, the dab, as of their blood ; 
The conger finely sous’d, hot summer’s coolest food; 
The whiting known to all, a general wholesome dish ; 
The gurnet, rochet, mayd, and mullet, dainty fish; 
The haddock, turbet, bert, fish nourishing and strong; 
The thornback, and the scate, provocative among; 
The weaver, which althoug his prickles venom be ; 
The fishers cut away, which buyers seldom see : 
Yet for the fish he bears, ’tis not accounted bad ; 
The sea-flounder is here as common as the shad; 
The sturgeon cut to keggs, too big to handle whole, 
Gives many a dainty bit, out of his lusty jole.” 
( PolyoTbion , song xxv.) 
The finest Mullets were taken off the coast near 
Arundel in Sussex. Of the mullet Mr. Couch 
Mullet. 
writes: — 
“ The charge of imbecility brought against this fish by Pliny, as 
shown by the fact that it hides its bead for concealment, and then acts 
as if persuaded that its whole body was concealed, is, as Cuvier has 
remarked, the opposite to what we know of the character of these fishes,, 
of which the vigilance when exposed to observation is very great. 
