112 FLIES FOR MAY. 



the following recipe : Boil two or three hand- 

 fuls of yellow wood one hour in a quart of soft 

 water ; wash the mallard hackles in soap and hot 

 water; then boil them a short time, with a large 

 spoonful of alum and tartar, in a little pipkin 

 with a pint of water ; take them out and immerse 

 them in your yellow decoction, and simmer them 

 slowly for an hour or two. The shorter the 

 simmering, the paler the yellow of the feathers ; 

 take them out and wash them in clear hard water. 

 When there is occasion for dyeing yellow-green, 

 add a little blue, more or less, according to the 

 shade of green you wish to give to the yellow. 

 Mr. Eon aids recommends another way for dye- 

 ing mallard's feathers for the May-fly's wings. He 

 tells us to make a mordant by dissolving about a 

 quarter of an ounce of alum in a pint of water, and 

 then to slightly boil the feathers in it to get the 

 grease out of them, after which to boil them in 

 an infusion of fustick to procure a yellow, and 

 then to subdue the brightness of the yellow by 

 adding a little copperas to the infusion. Having 

 now the wing-feathers dyed, I'll tell you how to 

 make the fly: Body, bright yellow mohair, or 

 floss-silk, ribbed slightly with light bronze pea- 

 cock's harl ; wings, mottled feather of the mallard 

 dyed a pale yellow-green. They are to stand 

 nearly erect, and to be slightly divided. Legs, 

 a couple of turns of a red-ginger hackle; tail, 



