40 HOW TO TIE FLIES. 



We must now pass on to the consideration of 

 hackles and such other materials as are used to 

 imitate the fly's legs. 



With dubbed flies the dubbing itself, picked out 

 from beneath the shoulder with the needle, is 

 sometimes considered to be sufficient. Again, a 

 few hairs of some kind or other, tied in with the 

 tying silk and worked into place, are also occa- 

 sionally substituted for hackles. Small feathers, 

 such as those from the wren's tail, and from 

 beneath the wings of certain birds, also black 

 plover toppings, &c., are used in large quantities, 

 but scarcely call for separate notice here, as the 

 utility of most of them is not general, but limited 

 to particular dressings of particular flies. 



Of neck feathers, that is to say, hackles properly 

 so called, we have an endless variety. The 

 speckled brown hackles of the partridge are often 

 used for March Brown flies. Hackles of the snipe 

 and golden plover, which in many respects 

 resembles the snipe, also grouse hackles, which 

 are of a more reddish tone than the others, are in 

 demand. Dotterel hackles are rarer, but are 

 considered almost indispensable in the north of 

 England. They are of a light dun in colour. 



The bright iridescent hackles of the starling, 

 which are of a glinting shade of dark metallic 

 green and rose colour, as looked at when on the 

 bird, make excellent black hackles. The duller 

 feathers of the hen, and those taken from a lower 

 part of the neck of the male bird, are also useful. 

 I have found it extremely difficult to obtain good 

 black hackles from poultry, of a size suitable for 

 the very small flies. 



The jungle cock, so much esteemed by dressers 

 of salmon flies, supplies badger hackles useful for 

 trout flies, though sometimes rather coarse in the 

 quill. 



It is from poultry that the great majority of 



