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.d. 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 (15 16-1565) ex- 

 pressly states that in England it is called the ruffe 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 Percidas 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 



