196 SALMON FLIES 



away the residue of the pith so exposed from 

 within the central quill. In order to avoid 

 breaking the fibres, this should be done from 

 the root towards the tip of the feather i.e., 

 in the same direction as that in which the 

 fibres are inclined. Strip off the fibres of the 

 useless side from the small piece of quill re- 

 maining. The feather is now ready to wind 

 on as a hackle. Left wing coverts will be 

 wound in the same way as any other kind of 

 throat hackle, but right wing coverts, of course, 

 will have to be wound in the opposite direc- 

 tion, and, accordingly, the dressing silk will in 

 this case have to be reversed. 



Transferring Wings. Very often a pattern 

 will be put out of action e.g., through the 

 breaking of the hook, the cracking of the gut 

 loop, the unravelling of the body tinsel or 

 hackle, and so forth and yet retain wings and 

 wing adjuncts capable of further service. It is 

 possible to transfer the wings of such a pattern 

 holus-bolus on to another hook of the same 

 size, and thus enable them to continue a useful 

 existence over a freshly tied body and hackles 

 similar (or dissimilar, for that matter) to those 

 which coexisted with them originally. As this 



