Concerning Flies 189 



" Francis Francis," in " A Book on 

 Angling " (page 170), remarks, concerning 

 the "Blue Dun," "It varies slightly in 

 colour, according to the temperature and 

 season. If the day be cold and bleak, it 

 has a darker tinge than in warmer and more 

 genial weather ; " and he also remarks that 

 "Ephemera," in his "March Flies," repro- 

 duces this fly under four different names, 

 namely, "The Early Dark Dun," "The 

 Olive Fly," " The Dark Hares-ear," and the 

 " Hares-ear and Yellow." A little variety of 

 shade is all the real difference that exists 

 between them. 



I now turn to that well-known standard 

 work, " The Fly-Fisher's Entomology," by 

 Alfred Eonalds, and I find (at page 62, 

 under the head of the "Blue Dun") these 

 remarks : " This fly lives for three or four 

 days in the state represented, and then 

 becomes the Bed Spinner" and so on; 

 he actually dismisses the "Blue Dun" in 

 a dozen lines a circumstance which com- 

 pletely staggers me, since it is one of 

 the ephemeridae most interesting to the 

 scientist as well as the fisherman. Can 

 he, like Mr. Halford, have had doubts 

 regarding its existence ? For he does not 

 devote a word to its many transformations 



