86 The Atlantic Salmon 



Next to size, I should place color as the de- 

 sirable attribute in salmon flies, and by color 

 I mean the general effect which may be obtained 

 by using materials of uniform hues. I do not 

 believe that salmon are sensitive to slight varia- 

 tions in color, or that the addition of a minute 

 feather or an extra twist of hackle, put in by 

 tackle-makers to increase their list by one pattern, 

 or by ambitious anglers in order that their names 

 may be revered by the present and future genera- 

 tions on account of having flies called by them, 

 matters one way or the other. 



Sir Herbert Maxwell, in his very instructive 

 book, " Salmon and Sea Trout," gives a number 

 of examples to strengthen the theory that color 

 has nothing whatever to do with fish, either 

 salmon or trout, taking the fly, and that these 

 fish are practically color-blind. His own ex- 

 periences were with trout, which he found would 

 take a bright blue or red May fly quite as well 

 as one of the natural color of the insect. The 

 May fly being about the best imitation of the 

 real thing that exists in any artificial flies, this 

 might prove that the trout looked first for the 

 shape and size of the fly they were taking, and 

 perhaps experiments with other patterns not so 



