AND FLIES 37 



impetuous gait of a water-wagtail, whip- 

 ping the little pools with unpardonable 

 violation of every nicety of the art? 

 Most of us, perhaps, only too often. 

 Yet these two characters are the trustees 

 of much that we anglers revere and be- 

 lieve, although we are not always so 

 ready to admit it. They unconsciously 

 demonstrate that a few flies used on 

 proper occasions are all that the trout- 

 fisher needs, that one fly of a given class 

 does just about as well as another when 

 fish are feeding, excepting on such occa- 

 sions as the rise of the May-fly or March 

 Brown. The village angler backs his 

 arguments in favour of his local patterns 

 by the fact that he is seldom disappointed 

 in a day's sport. He contends too and 

 here, perhaps, with some reason that 

 his flies, being more like those which 

 they are intended to imitate, are more 

 likely to catch fish than those monstrosi- 

 ties of the tackle-maker, some of which 



