52 LIST OF FLIES. 



each joint of the body, darkest on the three last joints ; legs 

 and whisks a dim light green tinge and transparency. 



Hackled, for legs and wings, with a light colored mottled 

 feather from the wild mallard, that is stained the ground 

 color of the wings of the fly ; body pale yellow-green smooth 

 woollen thread, warped with eight or nine open rounds of 

 darker shade. 



The green drake is the superior fly of the drake tribes. 

 All the genus are bred in the water first an egg, then a 

 creeper ; the green drake remains in it above ten months. 

 About the twenty-fourth of this month the forward creepers 

 are matured ; and from ten o'clock till four, on fine days, 

 rise to the surface, when the struggling fly splits open the 

 creeper case at the shoulders, and draws out its body, wings, 

 whisks, and legs, as it floats on the current. When all the 

 parts are at liberty, up springs on the wing the new-hatched 

 fly, like a water nymph in fairy green, leaving the empty 

 creeper skin on the water, an exhausted senseless slough. 

 In this way, while the sun's beams (the accoucheur general) 

 shine warm on the water, the unseen drake creeper is meta- 

 morphosed into a beautiful fly, which the eye catches spring- 

 ing up from various parts of the water, when we wonder 

 from what or whence they come ; but on looking close, the 

 empty creeper skins will be seen floating in the places. 

 Each succeeding day, for three or four weeks, continues to 

 hatch them, until the whole family are brought into this 

 breathing world. Her first flight is heavy, but shortened 

 by the first tree, grass, or bush she can light upon. She 

 springs from the bosom of her cradle and her nurse, sur- 

 rounded by dangers ; the reckless swallow often traps her in 

 her first flight. She floats on the current majestic, the little 

 "lady o' the lake," often on the brink of eternity ,for, 

 beneath, her deadliest enemies lie watching in her track ; 

 and in her short sail --with scarce time to breathe her new 

 element she is waylaid and gulped by the reckless trout. 



