THE BLUE DUN 137 



clining to the belief that the different coloured 

 duns are no more or less than one and the same 

 fly, the variety of colour being due to the influence 

 of the weather. Now, it is not for me to gainsay 

 the dictum of such authorities as have so stated 

 their opinions that this is the case ; but if it is so, 

 I fail to understand how it happens that so many 

 spinners, evidently of the dun tribe, and so vary- 

 ing in colour, are to be seen on the water at the 

 same time ; and if, as is generally admitted, the 

 blue dun changes to a red spinner, and is the 

 same fly as the olive dun, whence comes the ' olive 

 spinner'? The latter is a fly well known to all 

 Hampshire fishermen, nor is it peculiar to that 

 district, for I have seen it repeatedly elsewhere. 

 My own impression is that the blue dun, olive 

 dun, and yellow dun are three distinct flies ; 

 the first changing to the red, the second to the 

 olive, and the third to the pale-yellow spinners. 

 Again, if the blue dun or the olive dun are 

 the same fly, it is surely strange that the fly 

 known as the blue quill, a hot-weather edition 

 of the blue dun, should be on the water on the 

 same day as the olive dun. I may be wrong, 

 but the conclusion I have come to is, that while 

 all the olive duns are the same fly, varying in 

 shade according to weather, so, in like manner, 

 the blue dun and the quill gnat, the yellow 

 dun and all its paler shades, are severally the 



