have this proverb, " More wholesome than a Perch of Rhine ": and he
says the River-Perch is so wholesome, that physicians allow him to be
eaten by wounded men, or by men in fevers, or by women in child-bed.

He spawns but once a year; and is, by physicians, held very nutritive;
yet, by many, to be hard of digestion. They abound more in the river Po,
and in England, says Rondeletius, than other parts: and have in their
brain a stone, which is, in foreign parts, sold by apothecaries, being
there noted to be very medicinable against the stone in the reins. These
be a part of the commendations which some philosophical brains have
bestowed upon the freshwater Perch: yet they commend the Sea-Perch
which is known by having but one fin on his back, of which they say we
English see but a few, to be a much better fish.

The Perch grows slowly, yet will grow, as I have been credibly
informed, to be almost two feet long; for an honest informer told me,
such a one was not long since taken by Sir Abraham Williams, a
gentleman of worth, and a brother of the angle, that yet lives, and I wish
he may: this was a deep-bodied fish, and doubtless durst have devoured
a Pike of half his own length. For I have told you, he is a bold fish; such
a one as but for extreme hunger the Pike will not devour. For to affright
the Pike, and save himself, the Perch will set up his fins, much like as a
turkey-cock will sometimes set up his tail.

But, my scholar, the Perch is not only valiant to defend himself, but he
is, as I said, a bold-biting fish: yet he will not bite at all seasons of the
year; he is very abstemious in winter, yet will bite then in the midst of
the day, if it be warm: and note, that all fish bite best about the midst of
warm day in winter. And he hath been observed, by some, not usually
to bite till the mulberry-tree buds; that is to say, till extreme frosts be