74. MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER, 
the wings of which, being filmy and transparent, cannot 
be really imitated by feathers or by any other available 
material. Wings are therefore merely an encumbrance to 
the artificial Trout-fly, and should be entirely rejected. 
The next point is Colour. On examining the fresh 
caught ephemeride and phryganide (for those in entomo- 
logists’ collections are generally faded) it will be found, in 
the first place, that there is almost always a general simi- 
larity in colour, though not in the exact tint, between 
the wings and the bodies and legs, and that the colours 
which predominate —indeed almost monopolize—are 
greens, yellows, and browns. Our typical flies should 
evidently, therefore, be of these colours. 
Moreover the colours of the bodies of the ordinarily 
imitated flies made of silk, dubbing, &c., generally 
change their colours when wet, and thus lose another 
important item of the exact imitation; whilst as a rule 
they always lack the glossy, semi-transparent ap- 
pearance of the real insects. To the question of colour 
I have accordingly devoted a large share of attention, 
and the three typical flies which are described in the 
next Chapters are new both in principle and detail. 
They will be found to give the real colours strongly and 
unmistakably, and in a form which makes any discolora- 
tion on wetting impossible. 
Size, a most important point in artificial flies, demands 
the next consideration. As we have no longer imita- 
tions of individual species, size is a matter of no moment 
