The Perch. 
333 
a bent pin, and with a bottle by his side ready to receive 
the tiny prey. Afterwards, become “ his craft’s master,” 
he writes:— 
f £ There is also a little fish called a sticklebag, a fish without scales, 
hut hath his body fenced with several prickles. I know not where he 
•dwells in winter ; nor what he is good for in summer, but only to make 
sport for boys and women-anglers, and to feed other fish that be fish of 
prey.” (Part i. ch. 18.) 
“ The Pearch with prickling fins against the pike prepared. 
As nature had thereon bestow’d this stronger guard, 
° ° Perch 
His daintiness to keep (each curious palate’s proof) 
From his vile ravenous foe: next him I name the ruffe. 
His very near ally and both for scale and fin, 
In taste, and for his bait (indeed) his next of kin.” 
(Drayton, PolyoTbion , song xxvi.) 
Leland speaks of Perches in great number in a Welsh 
lake near Brecknock. The perch was considered a very 
wholesome fish, and was recommended for invalids. Perch 
in jelly seems to have been a fashionable dish. The 
perch was found in all lakes and rivers, with few excep¬ 
tions, throughout England. Sir Thomas Browne includes 
among the fishes of Norfolk— 
“ per ca or perch, great and small; whereof such as are taken in 
Breydon, on this side Yarmouth, in the mixed water, make a dish very 
dainty; and I think, scarce to be bettered in England.” 
He next mentions its “ next of kin,” the Kuffe, or Pope— 
“ the aspredo perca minor , and probably the cernua of Cardan, com¬ 
monly called a ruff; in great plenty in Norwich river, 
and even in the stream of the city; which though Ruffe. 
Camden appropriated unto this city yet they are also 
found in the rivers of Oxford and Cambridge.” (Vol. iv. p. 335.) 
The ruffe, or pope, says Cuvier, was first noticed by 
Dr. Caius, who sent a drawing of a specimen found by 
him in the river Yare, near Norwich, to Gesner, the Swiss 
naturalist. The name aspredo, from asper, rough, was 
