176 FLY FISHING FOR TROUT. 



Thus down to Bowlker in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century wings were composed of a 

 single strip, tied on in a bunch and divided. 

 This developed into the rolled wing, made 

 famous by Stewart, and in general use to-day. 

 The material is cut from a single feather, 

 folded into several folds with the lightest 

 coloured side outside, tied on in a bunch at the 

 top of the hook and separated into two by tying 

 silk in a figure of eight. Mr. Skues, pondering 

 on Minor Tactics and casting his eyes round for 

 the best dressing of sunk flies for chalk streams, 

 unhesitatingly pitches upon this. 



Leaving flat-winged flies on one side, there 

 are therefore two ways of constructing wings 

 and two ways of tying them on. They can be 

 constructed of a single piece, put on either 

 single or rolled; or they can be made of two 

 slips. They can be tied on either the natural 

 way or reversed. The earliest form was the 

 single strip, tied on reversed. 



Cotton apparently did not hackle his winged 

 flies, but, as his bodies were always of dubbing, 

 this could be picked out. Barker recommends 

 hackles, with one side stripped, either cock or 

 capon, or plover's top which is best. Venables 

 used a hackle or none, indifferently. All made 

 their bodies of fur or wools, and since the 

 brightly-dyed wools which we use were not 

 obtainable, they had to get a rare collection, 

 bear's, heifer's, dog's, fox's, and what not. 



