68 MODERN PRACTICAL ANGLER. 



sibillty of discriminating between different species, but 

 often rendering it difficult for the fish even to identify 

 the flies as flies. The only thing a fish can distinguish 

 under these circumstances, besides the size of a fly, is its 

 colour. We therefore regard form as a matter of com- 

 parative indifference, and colour as all-important. 



Now in each of the above arguments there is a part 

 that is sound and a part that is fallacious ; and it is from 

 the failure in distinguishing the true from the false, 

 that what I believe to be the erroneous practice of both 

 these opposite parties springs. Each argument, however, 

 is sound so far as to be an *' unanswerable answer " to 

 the other : — It is clear — as stated by the " formalists" — 

 that colour is 7iol everything in a fly, because if it were, 

 a bunch of coloured feathers tied on anyhow to the hook 

 would kill as well as an artificial fly, whereas by their 

 practice the colourists themselves admit that such is not 

 the case. On the other hand, the argument of the "colour- 

 ists," th2Ltfro7n the way the artificial fly is presented to the 

 fish it is impossible they can distinguish minutice of 

 form and imitation, equally commends itself to common 

 sense and common experience. This is the point, in 

 fact, in which the entomological theory entirely breaks 

 down. Because Trout take the artificial for the natural 

 fly, the formalists argue that the one should be an exact 

 counterpart of the other, ignoring the fact that tJie two 

 insects are offered to the fish tinder entirely different 

 conditions. The artificial fly is presented under water 



