CHAPTER IV 



MATERIALS 



NOT the least attractive part of dressing your 

 own flies is the collection of the materials. 

 Indeed, it is almost a pursuit in itself a sort 

 of hobby within a hobby and there are men 

 whose chief pleasure and satisfaction seem to 

 lie in the picking up of some particularly 

 choice feather or skin, and who are positively 

 loth to employ them, and so break their 

 entirety in the actual dressing of a fly ! 



Now, of course, the collection of materials, 

 especially feathers, is an endless occupation, 

 but the practical man will draw a sharp dis- 

 tinction between what should be and what can 

 be collected in short, between what is really 

 essential, and what is more or less superfluous. 

 I should advise the beginner to be strictly 

 moderate in the quantity of his collection, and 

 he need not at first be over-particular as to 



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