THE RUFFE 227 



accidentally displaced one eye ; he returned the 

 fish to the lake and threw in the line with the 

 eye remaining on the hook and with no other 

 bait ; he immediately recaptured the fish he had 

 just thrown in, which had actually been caught 

 with its own eye. 



The name is derived from the Latin Perca 

 through the French Perche\ it is of Greek origin 

 and appears to mean either " dark coloured " or 

 ""spotted." Barse or its modern equivalent Bass 

 is from the Anglo-Saxon Baers, the older name 

 for this fish in our islands, which is still used 

 for it locally, for example in Westmorland and 

 Norfolk. 



THE RUFFE or POPE (Acerina cernua} differs 

 from the Perch in the confluence of the dorsal fins 

 to form a single fin with thirteen to sixteen spines 

 and eleven to fifteen soft rays, the shorter anal 

 fin, of two spines and five or six soft rays, the 

 rather wide interspace between the bases of the 

 pelvic fins, the larger scales, the small size of 

 the mouth, the presence of large muciferous cavities 

 on the head, the fewer and stronger prse-opercular 

 spines, and the colour, which is greenish or 

 yellowish olive, marbled and spotted with brown 

 or black. 



This species inhabits Europe north of the 

 Pyrenees and the Alps, Russian Turkestan, and 

 Siberia; in our islands it is absent from Scotland 

 and Ireland ; in England and Wales it extends 

 north to Lancashire and Yorkshire, and west to 

 the Severn and Dee ; it is absent from Somerset, 

 Hampshire, Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall. In our 



