70 CAPRICIOUSNESS OF SALMON. 



the best imitations of them I may have in my fly- 

 book, in preference to nondescripts, as recom- 

 mended by the innovating piscatorial philosophers. 

 If I am obstinate, I cannot help it. My imi- 

 tation theory extends only to the common river, 

 non-migratory trout, and to the gray ling j I totally 

 abandon it with respect to salmon, and all migra- 

 tory salmonid^e.* They are as capricious as the 

 days are long. Account for it ? — Alas ! I cannot. 

 But I may suggest that, as the natural history and 

 habits of salmon are abnormal, or normal only as 

 per se, I do not see why their appetites or tastes 

 for food should not be also abnormal, or beyond 

 all fixed rule. 



Some tell me that salmon-flies are taken for 

 butterflies or for birds by salmon. God bless my 

 heart ! We have no humming-birds in this country, 

 or insects of Cashmere. Look at fly No. 1. in the 

 frontispiece — " The Goldfinch," — ■ and in what 

 fairy fields will you find bird or insect like that ? 

 Look at that gorgeous artificial, " The Shannon," 

 in plate No. 2., and tell me where, in this clime of 

 ours, you will find living thing possessing the 

 tenth of a tithe of its brilliancy. Yet these splen- 

 did formations of feather, gold, and dyed fur, are 

 especial attractions for the salmon of the Shannon 



♦ It holds good with the insectivorous carp tribe. 



