66 IMPROVEMENT IN FLY-DRESSING. 



feathers for wings from a still greater variety of 

 birds. The same feather that will make the 

 wings will frequently answer best for the legs, 

 shoulders, and tail of the fly. All that is required 

 is judgment in the selection, and this can only 

 be obtained by comparison. 



Artificial flies are now certainly very neatly 

 made infinitely better, every judge acknow- 

 ledges, than they used to be a few years ago. My 

 own ephemeral writings in BeWs Life in London 

 have (I have heard many say) tended much to 

 this advance towards perfection; and so have 

 Mr. Ronalds's 6 Fly-fisher's Entomology,' and 

 Mr. Blacker's ' Art of Fly-making ' * and, lastly, 

 so have the two first editions of this Handbook. 



Still we are not perfect in fly-making, nor shall 

 we be so until some more painstaking fly-dresser 

 than we now have gets a collection of natural 

 flies, examines them by means of the microscope, 

 ascertains their precise colours and anatomy, and 

 then by microscopic examination again of feathers, 

 mohair, fur, and so forth, arrives at the exact 

 imitative materials. When that is done, fly-fishing 

 will be reduced to a sporting science exceedingly 

 amusing and instructive. The journeyman fly- 



* I earnestly recommend this valuable little work to all who 

 wish to become perfect fly-making adepts. It is sold by the 

 author, 54 Dean Street, Soho, and by the Messrs. Longman and 

 Co., Paternoster Kow. 



