102 MATERIALS FOR FLY-MAKING. 



that which grows nearest the skin) than on the 

 upper part. There is never the same kind of 

 gloss on the under as on the upper part, but the 

 difference of colour is sometimes several shades, 

 and this is not desirable. The plume fibres 

 should be fine, glossy, and set close together on 

 the stem, and these requisites are usually met 

 with in the hackles of a game cock of about ten or 

 twelve months old. The chief colour required of 

 cock's hackles is blood-red, for palmers, with a 

 small portion of black towards the quill. A use- 

 ful sort, too, for making the same fly, is what is 

 called the furnace hackle, or one having a blood- 

 red ground (if the term may be allowed), with a 

 narrow black line passing from the quill to the 

 point on each side of the stem. It is not easy to 

 obtain either of these kinds in perfection, but 

 when met with they cannot be too highly prized. 

 As to hen's hackles, it must be remembered 

 that they should never be taken from a hen less 

 [than two years old an age when the cock, as a 

 hackle producer, is becoming worthless. Hackles 

 from a younger hen are always brittle in the 

 stem, particularly at the point, and the plume 

 fibres are of too soft and downy a nature. Red, 

 yellow, black, and the different shades of blue, 

 are the most useful colours. Light blue hackles, 



