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Near Edmonton, on the Lea; a rural bit by T. Creswick.

THE FIFTH DAY.

(Continued.)

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE MINNOW OR PENK, OF THE LOACH, AND OF THE BULL-HEAD, OR MILLER'S-THUMB.

Piscator. There be also three or four other little fish that I had almost forgot, that all are without scales;1 and may for excellence of meat, be compared to any fish of greatest value, and largest size. They be usually full of eggs or spawn all the months of summer; for they breed often, as 'tis observed mice and many of the smaller four-footed creatures of the earth do; and as those, so these come quickly to their full growth and perfection. And it is needful that they breed both often and numerously; for they be, besides other accidents

The minnow is covered with numerous serrate scales, so that Walton is in error in saying they are without them. Indeed several fishes sup posed to be without scales have them. The eels have scales, though they are so minute as to require the aid of a magnifying glass to see them; but it is curious that some allied genera, as the congers, &c., are destitute of them.-ED.

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of ruin, both a prey and baits for other fish. And first I shall tell you of the MINNOW, or PENK.'

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The Minnow hath, when he is in perfect season and not sick, which is only presently after spawning,-a kind of dappled or waved colour, like to a panther, on his sides, inclining to a greenish and sky-colour, his belly being milkwhite, and his back almost black or blackish. He is a sharp biter at a small worm, and, in hot weather makes excellent sport for young Anglers, or boys, or women that love that

1 A writer in the fifth volume of Mr. Loudon's "Magazine of Natural History," relates that, crossing a brook, he "saw from the foot-bridge something at the bottom of the water which had the appearance of a flower. Observing it attentively," he proceeds, "I found that it consisted of a circular assemblage of minnows: their heads all met in a centre, and their tails diverging at equal distances, and being elevated above their heads, gave them the appearance of a flower half-blown. One was longer than the rest; and as often as a straggler came in sight, he quitted his place to pursue him; and having driven him away, he returns to it again, no other minnow offering to take it in his absence. This I saw him do several times. The cbject that had attracted them all was a dead minnow, which they seemed to be devouring."

recreation. And in the spring they make of them excellent Minnow-Tansies; for, being washed well in salt, and their heads and tails cut off, and their guts taken out, and not washed after, they prove excellent for that use; that is, being fried with yolks of eggs, the flowers of cowslips, and of primroses, and a little tansie; thus used they make a dainty dish of meat.

The LOACH is, as I told you, a most dainty fish:' he breeds

The Loach.

and feeds in little and clear swift brooks or rills, and lives there upon the gravel, and in the sharpest streams: he grows not to be above a finger long, and no thicker than is suitable to that length. This Loach is not unlike the shape of the eel: he has a beard or wattels like a barbel. He has two fins at his sides, four at his belly, and one at his tail; he is dappled with many black or brown spots; his mouth is Barbel-like under his nose. This fish is usually full of eggs or spawn, and is by Gesner, and other learned physicians, commended for great nourishment, and to be very grateful both to the palate and stomach of sick persons. He is to be fished for with a very small worm at the bottom; for he

1 The term Loach, or Loche, is said to be derived from the French locher, "to be uneasy," alluding to the restless habits of the species of this genus, and their almost constantly moving from place to place. The Loach has six barbules about the mouth; and fish thus provided are known to feed at or near the bottom of the water. The flesh is accounted excellent and delicate food; and Linnæus says that Frederick I. thought so highly of them, that he had them brought from Germany and naturalized in his own country. They are extremely susceptible of electrical changes in the atmosphere, always indicating the approach of storms by extreme restlessness; on which account they have sometimes been preserved in glass vessels, like the leach, as living barometers. A continental naturalist calls it Thermometrum vivum. See Yarrell.-ED.

very seldom or never rises above the gravel, on which, I told you, he usually gets his living.

The MILLER'S-THUMB, or BULL-HEAD, is a fish of no

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pleasing shape. He is by Gesner compared to the sea-toadfish, for his similitude and shape. It has a head, big and flat, much greater than suitable to his body; a mouth very wide and usually gaping. He is without teeth, but his lips are very rough, much like to a file. He hath two fins near to his gills, which be roundish or crested; two fins also under the belly; two on the back; one below the vent; and the fin of his tail is round. Nature hath painted the body of this fish with whitish, blackish, brownish spots. They be usually full of eggs or spawn all the summer, I mean the females; and those eggs swell their vents almost into the form of a dug. They begin to spawn about April, and, as I told you, spawn several months in the summer. And in the winter the minnow, and loach, and bull-head, dwell in the mud, as the eel doth, or we know not where; no more than we know where the cuckoo and swallow, and other half-yearbirds, which first appear to us in April, spend their six cold, winter, melancholy months. This bull-head does usually dwell and hide himself in holes, or amongst stones, in clear water and in very hot days will lie a long time very and sun himself, and will be easy to be seen upon any flat stone, or any gravel; at which time he will suffer an Angler to put a hook baited with a small worm, very near unto his very mouth and he never refuses to bite, nor indeed to be

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1 I have been assured that wl en the Miller's-Thumb has deposited its spawn, it keeps near the spot til the spawa has vivified, contrary to the habits of any other fish.-ED.

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caught with the worst of anglers. Matthiolus commends him much more for his taste and nourishment, than for his shape or beauty.

There is also a little fish called a STICKLEBAG: a fish without scales, but hath his body fenced with several prickles. I know not where he dwells in winter, nor what he is good

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for in summer, but only to make sport for boys and womenanglers, and to feed other fish that be fish of prey; as trouts in particular, who will bite at him as at a penk; and better, if your hook be rightly baited with him; for he may be so baited as, his tail turning like the sail of a windmill, will make him turn more quick than any penk or minnow can. For note, that the nimble turning of that, or the minnow, is the perfection of minnow fishing. To which end, if you put

1 Petrus Andreas Matthiolus was born at Sienna in 1501, and died of the plague, at Trent, in 1577. He was an eminent physician, and particularly famous for his Commentaries on Dioscorides, of which there were numerous editions in Latin, besides several in Italian and French. The best is thought to be that printed at Venice, 1565, in one very large folio, and illustrated with 1500 finely executed wood-cuts of medical plants and animals.

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