18 



PERCTD.F. 



ACAM'HOPTERVG]]. 



I'ERLID.E. 



THE RUFFE, OR POPE. 



Acerina vulgaris, Cvv. et Valenc. Hist. Nat. des Poiss. t. iii. p. 4, pi. 41. 

 Perca cernua, Linn,i;us. Bloch, pt. ii. pi. 53. 



Ruffe, Penn. Brit. Zool. 1812, vol. iii. p. 350. 

 ,, Don. Brit, Fish. pi. 39. 

 Cevnuu Jiuviatilis, ,, Fi.em. Brit. An. p. 212, sp. 141. 



Generic Characters. — Dorsal fin single, elongated, the rays of the first portion 

 spinous, the others flexible; branchiostegous rays 7 ; teeth very small, uniform, 

 numerous ; head without scales : suborbital bone and preopeiculum indented ; 

 operculum ending in a single point. 



The Ruffe, a fresli-water fish, closely allied to tlie Perchj 

 but with a single dorsal fin, appears to have been unknown 

 to the ancients, and Cuvier assigns the credit of its first 

 discovery to an Englishman whose name was Caius.* He 

 found it in the river Yare, near Norwich, and called it 

 Aspredo, a translation of our name of Ruffe (rough), which 

 is well applied to it on account of the harsh feel of its den- 

 ticulated scales. Caius sent the first figure of this fish to 

 Gesner, who published it. 



The Ruffe is common to almost all tlie canals and rivers 



* I he learned i'r. Cuius, well known for his various zoological wiilings. 



