598 OCEAN, LAKE, AND RIVER. 



in the palm of the left hand and rolled into the shape of an oblong 

 cone. The smaller end is then applied to the lower end of the 

 body, and twisting or spinning it in with the wrapping silk it is 

 wound up the body, which is to be increased in bulk as you near 

 the space intended for the hackle. The wild hairs of the dubbing 

 should be clipped off, so also should awry fibres of the hackle after 

 winding on. The picker (a darning needle, stuck head in into a 

 small cork will answer for this little implement), when required, is 

 brought into requisition in arranging and straightening the irregular 

 fibres after winding on the hackle. 



The mode of clipping off the but ends of the wing as close up to 

 the head of the fly as I have described, answers in most cases, for 

 instance for a herl, or mohair, or fur body, but when we intend to 

 make a floss body the surplus part of the wing should be clipped 

 off in a direction slanting towards the bend of the hook ; so that in 

 wrapping over it with the floss the body will taper, handsomely in- 

 creasing in bulk as it nears the place where you intend to fasten in 

 the hackle. In tying flies one becomes appreciative of the minute- 

 ness of spaces, and in putting on tinsel, or in the length of the 

 body, or in finishing off at the head as much as may be occupied 

 by one or two turns of the finest wrapping silk, is easily judged of. 



Tails. — In putting on this little "caudal appendage," as Mr, 

 Sparrowgrass would have termed it, much nicety is to be observed. 

 Of course it is placed precisely on top of the hook, the fibres of 

 feathers of which it is composed should curve upward and sit 

 gracefully. If it be a plain body, as in the fly, called the hare's 

 ear, it is tied in on completing the wrapping on of the gut. If tin- 

 sel ornaments the end of the body, it should be put on first, and 

 then the tail. If the body is intended to be wrapped with tinsel, it 

 should hang loose while putting on the tail and then wound spi- 

 rally over the dubbing with two, three, four, or five turns, as the 

 case may be. 



Repeating in part the directions already given for the bodies 

 of the flies, let me remind the learner that the material fastened in 

 last is wrapped on first. Suppose for instance you wish to make a 

 winged fly with a palmer body : After the tail is on, tie in the end 

 of the hackle, and then— Jlrslfy, wrap on the dubbing; secondly, the 

 tinsel ; thirdly, the hackle, following close behind the turns of the 



