18 



PERCID.E. 



ACAISITHOPTERYGII. 



PERCIDJE. 



J-^^Si-r:-;,- , 



*^^-■l--Ste 



THE RUFFE, OR POPE. 



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

 Perca cernua, Linn«us. Bloch, pt. ii. pi. 53. 



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

 „ Don. Brit. Fish. pi. 39. 



Cernua Jiuviatilis, 



FiEM. 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 fresh-water fish, closely allied to the 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 the canals and rivers 



* The learned Dr. Caius, well known for his various zoological writings. 



