Tackle 87 



closely resembling living insects might be more 

 conclusive if they gave the same result. Sir 

 Herbert quotes an anecdote from Thomas Tod 

 Stoddard of a a Scottish laird who so firmly 

 believed that color had nothing to do with the 

 taking properties of flies that he renounced all 

 color in his, and dressed them entirely in white, 

 and, thus equipped, took as many fish as one of 

 the " ablest craftsman " in the district whose 

 notions regarding the visual perception of fish 

 were perfectly different. So far as our trout go, 

 I can say with confidence they are not color- 

 blind, though this may be answered by the state- 

 ment, which is true, that they are not trout at 

 all, but char. Salmon may be more indifferent 

 to the color effect of flies than trout, but I am 

 very reluctant to admit, in the face of several tests 

 mentioned in this volume which seem to me con- 

 clusive, that this indifference comes from inability 

 to distinguish between a dark and a light colored 

 object or even to a finer perception of hues. 



It is safe to say that in a lot of flies of fifty 

 varieties twenty-five would be so nearly alike 

 that a layman could not, without careful examina- 

 tion, tell the difference between them, and that 

 a salmon could do better is very improbable. No 



