S^IZE OF FLIES. *225 



perhaps at the moment when your fly engages 

 his observation, he is ah'eady half-glutted with 

 other food. But supposing him to be commenc- 

 ing his meal, then, if we can judge by our own 

 appetites, let me ask you, if when you sat down 

 to dinner, three mutton cutlets en masse were 

 upon your plate at once, would you not be less 

 likely to get through them than if they came 

 before you one by one ? And might not a fish 

 for the same reason prefer many small morsels to 

 one large ? It seems to me that they are not so 

 gross in their habits of feeding as many animals. 

 They do not, like a boa-constrictor, "swallow an 

 ox," and then lie gorged and torpid for a length 

 of time. But if you examine a trout's stomach 

 (except in the May-fly season) you will find him 

 full of innumerable small flies, with scarce one 

 large one, though the larger sorts are in abun- 

 dance upon the water. I myself have taken 

 trout with myriads of what we fishermen denomi- 

 nate the black gnat in their stomachs and throats, 

 though the air has swarmed with larger flies, such 

 as the alder, and March brown, and cinnamon, 

 on a dozen of which, with infinite less labour, he 

 might have contrived to make as hearty a meal. 

 This cannot proceed from the mere superiority 

 of taste and flavour which one fly may possess 

 over another, even admitting that fish have the 

 561186 of taste, which has been doubted by Mr. 



