But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be doubted, that a Pike will devour a fish of his own kind that shall be bigger than his belly or throat will receive, and swallow a part of him, and let the other part remain in his mouth till the swallowed part be digested, and then swallow that other part that was in his mouth, and so put it over by degrees; which is not unlike the Ox', and some other beasts taking their meat, not out of their mouth immediately into their belly, but first into some place betwixt, and then chew it, or digest it by degrees after, which is called chewing the cud. And, doubtless, Pikes will bite when they are not hungry; but, as some think, even for very anger, when a tempting bait comes near to them.

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doubtless would have devoured him also, had he not by wonderful agility and dexterous swimming, escaped the dreadful jaws of this voracious animal."

In Dr. Plot's History of Staffordshire, 246, are sundry relations of Pike of great magnitude; one in particular, caught in the Thame, an ell and two inches long.

The following story, containing further evidence of the voracity of this fish, with the addition of a pleasant circumstance, I met with in Fuller's Worthies, Lincolnshire, page 144.

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A cub Fox drinking out of the river Arnus in Italy, had his "head seized on by a mighty Pike, so that neither could free themselves, but were ingrappled together. In this contest, a young man runs into the water, takes them out both alive, and carrieth them to the Duke of Florence, whose palace was hard by. The porter would not admit him, without promising of sharing his full half in what the duke should give him; to which he (hopeless otherwise of entrance) condescended. The duke, highly affected with the rarity, was about giving him a good reward, which the other refused, desiring his highness would appoint one of his guard to give him an hundred lashes, that so his porter might have fifty, according to his composition. And here my intelligence leaveth me, how much "farther the jest was followed."

The same Author relates, from a book entitled Vor Piscis, printed in 1626, that one Mr. Anderson, a townsman and merchant of Newcastle, talking with a friend on Newcastle bridge, and fingering his ring, let it fall into the river; but it having been swallowed by a fish, and the fish afterwards taken, the ring was found and restored to him. Worthies, Northumberland, 310. A like story is, by Herodotus, related of Polycrates king of Samos.

And it is observed, that the Pike will eat venomous things, as some kind of frogs are, and yet live without being harmed by them; for, as some say, he has in him a natural balsam, or antidote against all poison. And he has a strange heat, that though it appear to us to be cold, can yet digest or put over any fish-flesh, by degrees, without being sick. And others observe, that he never eats the venomous frog till he have first killed her, and then as ducks are observed to do to frogs in spawning time, at which time some frogs are observed to be venomous, so thoroughly washed her, by tumbling her up and down in the water, that he may devour her without danger. And Gesner affirms, that a Polonian gentleman did faithfully assure him, he had seen two young geese at one time in the belly of a Pike. And doubtless a Pike in his height of hunger will bite at and devour a dog that swims in a pond; and there have been examples of it, or the like; for as I told you, "The belly has no ears when hunger comes upon it."

The Pike is also observed to be a solitary, melancholy, and a bold fish: melancholy, because he always swims or rests himself alone, and never swims in shoals or with company, as Roach and Dace, and most other fish do: and bold, because he fears not a shadow, or to see or be seen of any body, as the Trout and Chub, and all other fish do.

And it is observed by Gesner, that the jaw-bones, and hearts, and galls of Pikes, are very medicinable for several diseases, or to stop blood, to abate fevers, to cure agues, to oppose or expel the infection of the plague, and to be many ways medicinable and useful for the good of mankind: but he observes, that the biting of a Pike is venomous, and hard to be cured.

And it is observed, that the Pike is a fish that breeds

but once a year; and that other fish, as namely Loaches, do breed oftener as we are certain tame Pigeons do almost every month; and yet the Hawk, a bird of prey, as the Pike is a fish, breeds but once in twelve months. And you are to note, that his time of breeding, or spawning, is usually about the end of February, or, somewhat later, in March, as the weather proves colder or warmer: and to note, that his manner of breeding is thus: a he and a she-Pike will usually go together out of a river into some ditch or creek; and that there the spawner casts her eggs, and the melter hovers over her all that time that she is casting her spawn, but touches her not'.

I might say more of this, but it might be thought curiosity or worse, and shall therefore forbear it; and take up so much of your attention as to tell you, that the best of Pikes are noted to be in rivers; next, those in great ponds or meres; and the worst, in small ponds.

But before I proceed further, I am to tell you, that there is a great antipathy betwixt the Pike and some frogs: and this may appear to the reader of Dubravius, a bishop in Bohemia, who, in his book Of Fish and Fish-ponds, relates what he says he saw with his own eyes, and could not forbear to tell the reader. Which was :

(1) Very late discoveries of naturalists contradict this hypothesis concerning the generation of fishes, and prove that they are produced by the conjunction of the male and female, as other animals are. See the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XLVIII. Part II. for the year 1754, page 870.

(2) Janus Dubravius Scala, bishop of Olmutz in Moravia, in the sixteenth century, was born at Pilsen in Bohemia. The functions of the Bishopric did not hinder him from being an Ambassador into Sicily, then into Bohemia, and President of the chamber established to proceed against the rebels who had borne a part in the troubles of Smalcald. Besides the above book, (the Latin title whereof is, De Piscinis, & Piscium qui in eis aluntur naturis,) he appears, by the Bodleian Catalogue, to have written, in Latin, a History of Bohemia ; and an oration to Sigismund king of Poland, exhorting him to make

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"As he and the bishop Thurzo were walking by a large pond in Bohemia, they saw a frog, when the Pike lay very sleepily and quiet by the shore side, leap upon his "head; and the frog having expressed malice or anger by "his swoln cheeks and staring eyes, did stretch out his legs "and embraced the Pike's head, and presently reached "them to his eyes, tearing, with them and his teeth, those "tender parts: the Pike, moved with anguish, moves up "and down the water, and rubs himself against weeds, and "whatever he thought might quit him of his enemy; but "all in vain, for the frog did continue to ride triumphantly, "and to bite and torment the Pike till his strength failed; "and then the frog sunk with the Pike to the bottom of the water: then presently the frog appeared again at the top, "and croaked, and seemed to rejoice like a conqueror, after " which he presently retired to his secret hole. The bishop, "that had beheld the battle, called his fisherman to fetch "his nets, and by all means to get the Pike, that they might "declare what had happened: and the Pike was drawn "forth; and both his eyes eaten out; at which when they "began to wonder, the fisherman wished them to forbear, "and assured them he was certain that Pikes were often so served3."

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war on the Turks. He seems to have practised the ordering of fishponds and the breeding of fish, both for delight and profit. Hoffman, who in his Lexicon has given his name a place, says, he died with the reputation of a pious and learned prelate, in 1553; which last particular may admit of question, for, if it be true, it makes all his writings posthumous Publications, the earliest whereof bears date anno 1559.

His book On Fish and Fish-ponds, in which are many pleasant relations, was, in 1599, translated into English, and published in 4to. by George Churchey, Fellow of Lion's Inn, with the title of A new Book of good Husbandry, very pleasant and of great profit, both for gentlemen and yeomen, containing the order and manner of making of fish-ponds, &c.

(3) [Mr. Pennant, in his Zoology, 4to. Lond. 1776, vol. iv. p. has the following remark on this passage of the Complete Angler :

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"" As

I told this, which is to be read in the sixth chapter of the book of Dubravius, unto a friend, who replied, "It was as improbable as to have the mouse scratch out the "cat's eyes." But he did not consider, that there be Fishing-frogs, which the Dalmatians call the Water-devil, of which I might tell you as wonderful a story: but I shall tell you that 'tis not to be doubted but that there be some frogs so fearful of the water-snake, that when they swim in a place in which they fear to meet with him, they then get a reed across into their mouths; which, if they two meet by accident, secures the frog from the strength and malice of the snake; and note, that the frog usually swims the fastest of the two.

And let me tell you, that as there be water and landfrogs, so there be land and water-snakes. Concerning which take this observation, that the land-snake breeds and hatches her eggs, which become young snakes, in some old dunghill, or a like hot place: but the water-snake, which is not venomous, and as I have been assured by a great observer of such secrets, does not hatch, but breed her young alive, which she does not then forsake, but bides with them, and in case of danger will take them all into her mouth and swim away from any apprehended danger, and then let them out again when she thinks all danger to be past: these be accidents that we Anglers sometimes see, and often talk of.

As frogs adhere closely to the backs of their own species, so we know they will do the same by fish: Walton mentions a strange story of their destroying pike; but that they will injure, if not entirely kill carp, is a fact indisputable from the following relation: A very few years ago, on fishing a pond belonging to Mr. Pit, of Encomb, Dorsetshire, great numbers of the carp were found each with a frog mounted on it, the hind legs clinging to the back, the fore legs fixed in the corner of each eye of the fish, which were thin and greatly wasted, teazed by carrying so disagreeable a load. These frogs we imagine to have been males disappointed of a mate.]

(1) Walton should have said of the first book; for there it is to be found.