68 CATALOGUE OF INSECTS, 



giving instruction most powerfully. One word 

 to the finished artist^ who may perchance cast a 

 glance at these pages, and we M'ill enter on our 

 Catalogue. His praise will be appreciated even 

 when qualified with censure. If he grants that 

 something has been done in the right direction 

 by ascertaining the scientific name and some- 

 what of the habits of the chief angling flies, 

 and that the imitations are simplified, as far as 

 practicable, and the instructions sound in the 

 main, this is great praise from a judge, or we 

 are mistaken. After all, what is a descriptive 

 catalogue of the best insects for fly-fishing ? If 

 followed blindly without intelligence, it will be 

 as useless as a dictionary in the hand of untu- 

 tored youth. But use it intelligently as a help, 

 not as an oracle, and it will assist and facilitate 

 your studies. But it requires ingenuity and 

 perseverance, observation and judgment, aye, 

 travel too, and experience, to make an angler ! 



A glance at the subjoined classification of 

 insects may encourage the fly-fisher to take 

 an interest in those orders on which his sport 

 chiefly depends. These will be seen, in the 

 sequel, to be the Neuroptera and Diptera ; and 

 next to them, the Coleoptera. 



Insects, properly so called, are icinged, have 

 six legs and two antennce. They are divided into 

 1. Mandihulata (or chewers), and 2. Haustel- 



