THE RUFFE 71 
sharp spine, protected by a flap of skin. Professor Skeat 
pronounces the origin of the name “ruffe” to be unknown ; 
but I am bold enough to suggest that a closer acquaintance 
with the fish itself would have suggested to him the obvious 
inference that the name was connected with this spiny gill- 
cover. The earliest occurrence of the name is in the 
Promptorium Parvulorum (a.pd. 1440), and it is natural to 
connect it with the idea of a frilled ruff, such as has been 
supposed to be the origin of the same name borne by the 
ruff bird. Otherwise, taking the prickly gill-covers together 
with the spiny dorsal fin, it may be that the significance was 
merely the “rough”? fish. In fact, Gesner (1516-1565) ex- 
pressly states that in England it is called the rufte ab asperitate 
dictus—on account of its roughness. As for the synonym 
“pope,” which, to judge from what Izaak Walton says, is 
the older designation, no suggestion can be offered as to 
its meaning. 
In colour the ruffe displays none of the brilliancy in which 
so many of the Percide indulge. It is an obscure little fish, 
in general hue resembling the gudgeon ; it wears a jacket of 
lightish olive mottled with a darker tint, and with brassy 
tones upon the sides. The belly is white; the throat, the 
anal and ventral fins being tinged with a ruddy hue. The 
only suggestion of the piebald decoration so characteristic of 
this family is furnished by dark spots on the dorsal and 
caudal fins. The skin secretes a copious mucous, whence the 
Norwegian name “snorgers ’—signifying the slimy fish. 
The gregarious habit is not so definite in the ruffe as it 
is in the perch, neither is the ruffe so active and bold as 
its more powerful relative. It is a predaceous fish, however, 
living in streams for the most part, and lying in wait for food 
in the more sluggish parts of them, rather than roaming in 
quest of prey. In diet it is far from fastidious, feeding on 
fish-ova, worms, insects, and probably such small fish as do 
not outstrip its limited powers of locomotion. It spawns at 
