with its warm grey wings, than a Pre-Raphaelite portrait to the human
being for whom it is meant. Copied, like most trout flies, from some
traditional copy by the hands of Cockney maidens, who never saw a fly
in their lives, the mistake of a mistake, a sham raised to its tenth
power, it stands a signal proof that anglers will never get good
flies till they learn a little entomology themselves, and then teach
it to the tackle makers. But if it cannot be bought, it can at least
be made; and I should advise everyone who fishes rocky streams in May
and June, to dye for himself some hackles of a brilliant greenish-
yellow, and in the most burning sunshine, when fish seem inclined to
rise at no fly whatsoever, examine the boulders for the Chrysoperla,
who runs over them, her wings laid flat on her back, her yellow legs
moving as rapidly as a forest-fly's; try to imitate her, and use her
on the stream, or on the nearest lake. Certain it is that in Snowdon
this fly and the Gwynnant Hydropsyche will fill a creel in the most
burning north-easter, when all other flies are useless; a sufficient
disproof of the Scotch theory--that fish do not prefer the fly which
is on the water. {74}

Another disproof may be found in the 'fern web,' 'bracken clock' of
Scotland; the tiny cockchafer, with brown wing-cases and dark-green
thorax, which abounds in some years in the hay-meadows, on the fern,
or on the heads of umbelliferous flowers. The famous Loch-Awe fly,
described as an alder-fly with a rail's wing, seems to be nothing but
this fat little worthy: but the best plan is to make the wings,
either buzz or hackle, of the bright neck-feather of the cock
pheasant, thus gaining the metallic lustre of the beetle tribe. Tied
thus, either in Devonshire or Snowdon, few flies surpass him when he
is out. His fatness proves an attraction which the largest fish
cannot resist.