176 ROD AND RIVER 



a fish jump out and make a dash at one of a 

 batch, when they have hovered within its reach. 



The name ' silver horns ' is derived from the 

 two long horns peculiar to this fly. In the black 

 fly they are black ringed with white ; in the 

 brown, brown ringed with pale gray. Theak- 

 stone, who terms the black the * dark-pied dun,' 

 gives the following dressing : 



Wings : From a blackbird's wing-feather, with a 



reddish tinge on the under side. 

 Body : Coppery silk, tinged with water-rat's fur. 

 Hackle : A hen's hackle (he does not state the 



colour), or hare's ear for legs. 



My own opinion is that this pattern is infinitely 

 more like the brown silver horns than the black. 



As a rule, the black fly, and all such, are made 

 of materials far too dead black in colour (if black 

 can be termed colour). There is nothing in nature 

 which is absolutely black. Some of the midges 

 are as nearly so as they can be ; but when seen 

 under a magnifying-glass they are by no means 

 the lack-lustreless creatures which they are repre- 

 sented to be. There is another fly, the * hawthorn,' 

 which is nearly always dressed with ostrich-feather 

 dyed black. Now, whenever feathers are dyed, 

 and they must be so at times, they still retain a 

 certain amount of lustre. Black dye, however, 

 seems to drive out every particle of the latter, 



