PARTING OBSERVATIONS AND HINTS. 125 



to leave this branch of fly dressing untouched. 

 I find that the comparatively few novel features 

 discoverable in my dressings have, with one or 

 two unimportant exceptions, already been broadly 

 indicated in my chapter on materials and else- 

 where throughout the present series of articles. 

 Novelty is often a doubtful virtue, but it may be 

 safely assumed that a spicing of it should not be 

 lacking in anything that one aspires to set down 

 in print, and by this assumption I must for the 

 present be guided. It seems to me also that 

 the task of reviewing the different flies in their 

 order, and pointing out how they may be identi- 

 fied and imitated, cannot be adequately performed 

 without the aid of colour printing. 



B/onald's "Fly Fisher's Entomology" long 

 held its place as the standard work on "flies" 

 and their dressings, and will still be found a 

 capital work of reference ; but Mr. Halford's 

 latest book, " Dry Fly Entomology," must now be 

 regarded as the highest modern authority on the 

 subject. Though published but a year or two 

 ago, it has already on many occasions been used 

 as the supreme court of appeal by disputants, 

 on questions relating to the very numerous, 

 yet closely connected matters with which it 

 deals. 



I feel, therefore, that I may safely leave the 

 student of fly dressing to draw upon that store- 

 house for such information as he needs, as to the 

 life history, classification, and characteristics of 

 the insect upon which the trout feeds. 



There remain only one or two miscellaneous 

 matters upon which I desire to touch before 

 bringing these papers to a close. 



As I have indicated, it is of the first importance 

 that the fly dresser should go direct to Nature for 

 his model ; but though dozens of the natural fly 

 be on the water and in the air, it is often a matter 



