PLATE XXXIX. 
found in several of the English streams, which may be the fact. 
So far as we are acquainted with its haunts, and history as a British 
fish, there is reason to conclude, it is at least local. In the river 
Virny, which flows through the eastern confines of Merionethshire, 
and some contiguous streams in Shropshire, we have perceived it to be 
not very uncommon. 
The flesh of this fish, like that of the Common Perch is excellent, 
particularly in the spring or autumn. The Ruffe is a small creature, 
seldom attaining above five or six inches in length: the form is 
slender; and more graceful than the common Perch, at the same 
time, that in point of beauty, the Ruffe is far beneath the other. 
This species feeds on smaller fishes, worms, and aquatic insects, 
and is in its turn, the food of larger voracious fishes ; or of the wild 
fowl that frequent its haunts. The Ruffe spawns about the month 
of March : multiplying prodigiously in many of the vast lakes upon 
the continent of Europe; and assembling in shoals in the deepest 
parts of the water. The number of rays in the dorsal fin, is the 
character by which this fish is usually distinguished : in the pectoral 
fin are thirteen rays ; in the ventral one spinous and six soft rays ; the 
anal fin contains seven rays : tail nineteen. 
