ON MATERIALS. 27 



have wings almost as transparent as crystal. 

 Mr. Francis Francis, in describing a dressing of 

 the Jenny Spinner, writes as follows : 



" The wings ah ! those wings ! What shall we do 

 to imitate their clear, delicate, watery transparency ? 

 The tips of two very pale light blue hackles might, per- 

 haps, come near. The usual way, however, is as 

 Theakstone and Konalds recommend to dress the fly 

 hackle fashion, or buzz, as it is termed. 



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" If this fly could be well imitated it would be a valu- 

 able one, but hitherto our imitations are but sorry 

 affairs ; the fish seem to know it too, for, although 

 rising greedily at the natural fly, they do not greatly 

 favour the imitation, even at the best, as they will do 

 that of flies more easily imitated. ' ' 



The Jenny Spinner has by no means ceased to 

 be a puzzle to fly dressers, but we have certainly 

 made some progress since Mr. Francis wrote. 

 There are several substances which imitate the 

 wings very well as to appearance, but which are 

 deficient in durability, and are generally much 

 too brittle and stiff. Fish scales have been very 

 much used, those of the pike especially so. I 

 have never seen herring scales recommended, 

 and yet they are, perhaps, the most easily ob- 

 tained of all, and are finer in proportion to their 

 size, and brighter than pike scales or any others 

 that I have hitherto come across. 



I think, however, that the outer membrane of 

 a rook's quill, to which I attempted to draw 

 attention in the F. G. a year or two ago, will be 

 found as good, if not better, than any substance at 

 present used. The rook quills for this purpose 

 should be moulted ones, gathered from beneath 

 the trees of a rookery, and it is important that 

 they should not have lain long in wet weather. 



Cut off about Ijin. of the root end of the quill, 

 and steep it for a few minutes in hot water, 

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