ON CREEPERS. 



ALL the flies of the browns, drakes, and dun classes, are 

 bred in the water, from eggs or spawn laid on its surface 

 by the females. These eggs or spawn become animated and 

 hatch the young insects, which grow in the water the same 

 as fish, in the same shape and to the full size of the bodies 

 of their parent flies, when they are called creepers. These 

 creepers are cased and sheathed in a thin waterproof skin, 

 which protects and fits them for the occupation of the water 

 until they are matured for a change ; the skin is then split 

 open at the shoulders, and the fly is hatched, leaving the 

 empty creeper skin behind, as a bird does its shell. 



A description of the creepers of two or three species of 

 the flies of each of these classes, may suffice to give a know- 

 ledge of the whole, sufficient for the purposes of the flyfisher. 



CREEPERS OF THE BROWNS CLASS. 



The females of this class may be frequently seen on the 

 tops of posts and rails, battlements of bridges, etc., exuding 

 their eggs as they stand, which adhere to their bodies on 

 the first and second joint of the belly, and which they flap 

 off on to the water with their wings. The eggs of different 

 species vary in color. The creepers resemble, in shape and 

 construction, and also in sizes and colors, the bodies, legs, 

 etc., of their parent flies. Their creeper skins are thicker 

 than those of the drakes and duns, and most of them beauti- 

 fully marked and lined with dark brown on the top of the 

 head, shoulders, and down the back. They are very active, 

 and run as quick in the water as the flies do upon land, until 



