TROUT FLIES IN APRIL 



legs. In flight its dark-greenish wings make it less 

 conspicuous near the surface; but these duns are 

 often very thick over the water on the afternoons 

 of warm days. The flight becomes more numerous 

 in May ; so that the artificial may be used from the 

 middle of April till nearly the middle of June. 



No. 15. Blue cocktail. This is another variety 

 of the dun class. It is small, but seems hardy and 

 comes out in the coldest weather in both April and 

 May. 



These various little duns are most valuable, both 

 in the cold weather of spring and in the hot weather 

 of summer. They disappear in warm weather, but 

 are so much like the summer gnats that the imita- 

 tions suffice for both. The blue cocktail shown 

 here was caught in normal weather, though the wa- 

 ter was still ice-cold, and trout refused to rise. 



THE SHAD-FLY 



In consequence of the large number of insects 

 that appear in May, I found it impossible to show 

 on the May page of colored insects the various po- 

 sitions of the shad-fly I wished to depict. As the 

 April insects are correspondingly small, I place the 

 shad-fly on that page. Especially so, because I ob- 

 served a few females (though small in size) on the 

 water during the latter part of April. The female, 

 without the egg-sack, can be used in any weather 

 all day in the last week of April. 



29 



