EVOLUTION OF THE TROUT FLY. 147 



of fox cub's down spun on ash-coloured silk and 

 wings from a starling's quill feather. Bowlker 

 called it the Red Fly, and dressed it with a red 

 squirrel's fur body, a red hackle and dark 

 mallard wings : Aldam exactly like the 

 Treatise, mahogany silk and partridge hackle. 

 And so on, to modern times, when it is dressed 

 with a body of orange silk and hackled either 

 with partridge, grouse, or woodcock, according 

 to the fancy of the writer. It is the same fly 

 throughout. There can be no doubt about the 

 identification. It is the first fly given in the 

 list in the Treatise ; and it is the first fly which 

 greets the fisherman when the inhospitable 

 winter is over. The earliest French list also 

 gives a fly not dissimilar for the month of 

 April : body of red silk, head green, and wings 

 from a red hen. 



GRANNOM. 



It is doubtful whether the Treatise mentions 

 the Grannom, and Chetham is the first to give 

 an unambiguous account of it. 



The difficulty about the Treatise is this. 

 Here is the description of a fly given for July : 

 The Shell Fly at St. Thomas' Day. The body 

 of green wool and lapped about with the herl of 

 the peacocks tail: wings of the buzzard.' I 

 always considered that an excellent dressing of 

 the Grannom : green wool body and a mottled 

 buzzard wing could hardly be improved, but I 

 ruled it out because of the time of appearance. 



