380 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare's Time. 
waters, we have met with vermes setacci, or hard worms; hut could 
never convert horsehairs into them by laying them in water. (Yol. iv. 
p. 335.) 
In Pericles we find a reference to the irritability of 
<3els during a thunderstorm. 
The “ feast-famous Sturgeon,” or Sturio, was an oc¬ 
casional visitor to our shores, and was always 
exceedingly welcome:— 
Sturgeon. 
“ The sturgeon cut to keggs, too big to handle whole. 
Gives many a dainty bit, out of his lusty jole.” 
( PolyoTbion, song xxv.) 
This fish was taken in considerable quantities at the 
mouth of the Elbe, but its head-quarters were in Russia. 
Dr. Giles Fletcher, in his account of fresh-water fish 
caught there,' mentions— 
the bellouga, or bellougina, of foure or five elles long, the ositrina, 
or sturgeon, the severiga and sterlady, somewhat in fashion and taste 
like to the sturgeon, but not so thick or long. These foure kinds of 
fish breed in the Yolgha, and are catched to great plenty, and served 
thence into the whole realme for a great food. Of the roes of these 
foure kindes they make very great store of icary or caveary.” ( Purchas , 
vol. iii. p. 417.) 
The sturgeon was called a “ fish royal,” and was 
granted by charter to the mayor and burgesses of Boston, 
in Lincolnshire. When it came into the Thames it was 
claimed by the lord mayor, and was usually presented 
by him to the sovereign. Both fresh and salt sturgeon 
are mentioned as desirable dishes in Russell’s Poke of 
Nurture. 
“ The ravin’d salt sea Shark,” the terror of mariners, 
is thus described by Sir Richard Hawkins, in 
shaik. p- g YO y a g e ji n the South Seas, in 1593:— 
“ The Sharke or Tiberune, is a fish like unto those which wee call 
dog-fishes, but that hee is far greater, I have seene of them eight or 
nine foot long; his head is flat and broad, and his mouth in the middle, 
