APRIL. 33 



edge of each joint. They breed in soil banks by the water 

 sides ; there are great numbers in the bank opposite Fisher- 

 green, which is full of their small holes. They come home 

 loaded, like bees, on the body and thighs, with what they 

 collect from flowers, which gives them a rich orange hue. 

 They continue nearly through the season, and are out from 

 morning till night. 



Body, brown silk, dubbed and tinged with yellow fleshy 

 grizzle and hoary grey fine hair, or fur from the fox-cub, 

 squirrel, etc. \ blackbird's feather for wings ; and red brown 

 mohair or hen hackle for legs. 



27TH. IRON BLUE DRAKE. 18 Length, a quarter ; wings, 

 a quarter or better, of a dark blue bloa dim transparency. 

 Legs, whisks, and middle joints of the body are of a 

 light grey azure transparency ; head, shoulders, and end 

 joints, a dark brown. She hatches through the day, and 

 continues in succession nearly through the season. She is 

 a hardy little fly, a great favorite, and in good numbers on 

 the waters daily. She casts her skin and becomes the pearl 

 drake. 



Dark brown silk for the head, shoulders, and two or 

 three last joints of the body, and light blue grey for the 

 middle joints; hackled with a water-rail or water-hen's 

 small leady breast feather, with a few fibres of light blue- 

 grey fur from the fox-cub, to imitate the legs. 



28TH. PEARL DRAKE. * Size same as the iron blue, but 



(18) This fiy is indispensable to the angler, as when it is on the water the fish 

 will rarely look at any other ; Jackson styles it the " Pigeon Blue Bloa," but most 

 other authorities are unanimous in naming it the " Little Iron Blue," or " Iron Blue 

 Drake." Mr. Francis gives a most detailed and interesting account of it, and his 

 directions for its imitation are perhaps the best to be found. David Foster, the late 

 naturalist angler of Ashbourne-on-the-Dove, mentions the fact that on one occasion 

 he witnessed such a rise of this fly that in the distance it resembled a cloud of smoke. 



(1 9) This is the imago of the preceding fly, and would be equally valuable to the 

 flyfisher if only a good imitation could be dressed, but the wings are so glassy and 

 transparent as to render that by no means an easy task ; the author's dressing for 



