346 
The Animal-Lore of Shahspeares Time. 
The Plaice was found everywhere in great abundance. 
Plaice P ecu ^ ar countenance of this fish early 
attracted notice. “ His mouth shrinks side¬ 
ways like a scornful plaice,” writes Hall [Satires, b. iv. 
sat. i.). Muffett writes, “ Plaise (called the sea-sparrows,, 
because they are brown above and white beneath) are of 
good, wholesome, and fine nourishment ” (p. 164). 
Taste seems to have changed regarding the proper 
season for eating this fish. Yarrell says the plaice is con¬ 
sidered to be in finest condition for the table at the end 
of May, but Harrison gives as its season February and 
March. It was generally served with wine sauce. 
The opinion was once held that the plaice was pro¬ 
duced from a small crustacean animal of the shrimp kind. 
Modern discoverers, writes Mr. Couch, have explained this 
notion, from the fact that the ova is deposited in places 
frequented by shrimps; it frequently adheres to the 
under portion of these shrimps, at times when the parent 
plaice is seeking to devour them. 
The Flounder was taken in both salt and fresh water, 
Flou de an( ^ WaS 0ne commones ^ ^ a ^ 
fish. It was called the butt at Yarmouth, 
and the flook, or fleuk, in other parts. It was caught all 
round the coast, and in the mouth of large rivers, which 
it also ascended for some distance. 
Drayton, writing of the Severn, says :— 
“ The flounder smooth and flat, in other rivers caught, 
Perhaps in greater store, yet better are not thought.” 
( Polyolbion , song xxvi.) 
Dame Juliana Berners observes that the flounder, like 
the plaice, is a ground feeder :— 
“ The flounder is an holsom fysshe and a free, and a subtyll by ter 
in his manere : for comynly whan he soukyth his meete he fedyth at 
grounde, and therfore ye must angle to hym wyth a grounde lyne 
lyenge.” 
