EVOLUTION OF THE TROUT FLY. 183 



man. He had to depend on observation, for 

 books were either wanting or misleading until 

 Linnaeus rebuilt natural history. So progress 

 was slow. By the time of Bowlker, a century 

 after Walton, knowledge had moved little. 

 Bowlker himself gives a most excellent and 

 accurate account of the two transformations of 

 the Mayfly : and about other flies, too, he has 

 some useful notes. But it was not till the publi- 

 cation of the writings of Pictet, the Swiss 

 naturalist, in the first half of last century, that 

 tiie needed stimulus was given. There was 

 some stirring of the waters before this, it is 

 true, but of a rather unscientific kind. 

 Hawkins' edition of the Compleat Angler gives 

 a print, uncoloured, of a fly and of caddis cases. 

 About 1800 there came out Scotcher's Fly 

 Fisher's Legacy, a remarkable little book in 

 many ways, chiefly because it is the first to give 

 coloured figures of natural flies. He gives the 

 February Red, Blue Dun, March Brown, 

 Grannom, Mayfly, Black Gnat and others. 

 They are drawn and described from original 

 observation, and though there are some careless 

 mistakes, such as giving the Mayfly eight legs, 

 it is a good book. He wrote it, he said, because 

 he found it impossible to recognise flies from 

 the descriptions in books. 



After Scotcher there came two other writers 

 before Ronalds, Bainbridge, who wrote the 

 Fly-fisher's Guide in 1816, and Carroll the 

 Angler's Vade Mecum in 1818. Bainbridge 



