60 TREATISE ON FLY-FISHINGF. 



they deposit in the ground, or in the excrement of 

 animals. The cock-chaffer, the fern fly, and gray 

 beetle, are common in our meadows in the 

 summer, but there is hardly any insect that flies, 

 including the wasp, the hornet, the bee, and the 

 butter-fly, that does not become at sometime, the 

 prey of fishes." 



Mr. Stoddart mentions an interesting experi- 

 ment made with trout some years ago, in the 

 South of England, in order to ascertain the value 

 of different food. " Fish were placed in three 

 seperate tanks, one of which was supplied daily 

 with worms, another with live minnows, and the 

 third with those small dark coloured water flies, 

 which are to be found moving about on the surface, 

 under banks, and sheltered places. The trout 

 fed with worms grew slowly, and had a lean 

 appearance ; those nourished on minnows, which 

 it was observed they darted at with great avidity, 

 became much larger ; while, such as were fattened, 

 upon flies only y attained in a small time, prodigious 



