Hoir rnour take the fly 



or the fly had flopped its tail into its own mouth, 

 or if the flop had flipped its head into the trout's 

 mouth, or if the trout had flopped its head into 

 the fly's mouth. 



Shoo Fly ! 



In fact, it has been urged that analogy would 

 lead us to expect that a trout would flirt a fly into 

 his mouth. For does not every ten-year-old 

 country boy know that a swallow uses its tail to 

 flip gnats and other insects into its mouth.? A 

 hawk or an eagle uses its claws for the same pur- 

 pose, and a monkey its foot. Now has it not 

 been demonstrated by proof as clear as logic can 

 deduce from conjecture, that man is the develop- 

 ment of a monkey, and a monkey of a fish ? We 

 should, then, naturally expect a trout to use its 

 tail just as a man his hand, or a monkey his foot. 



Another view of the question worthy of notice 

 is, that the trout is a dainty, lordly fish, and, like 

 a true sportsman, scorns to take his game in any 

 other way than on the wing, unless he be very 

 hungry. When he sees a fly lying still, or skipping 

 along on the water, he strikes it with his tail to 

 make it rise (in hunting parlance, flushes it), and 

 then catches it ; he would no more think of catch- 

 ing a fly on the water than a sportsman would of 

 shooting a bird on the ground. 



249 



