260 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PAST ir. 



squeezes himself out of prison, and crawls to the top of some stone, where 

 if he can find a chink that will receive him, or can creep betwixt two stones, 

 the one lying hollow upon the other, which, by the way, we also lay so 

 purposely to find them, he there lurks till his wings be full grown ; and 

 there is your only place to find him ; and from thence doubtless he derives 

 his name ; though, for want of such convenience, he will make shift with 

 the hollow of a bank, or any other place where the wind cannot come to 

 fetch him off. His body is long, and pretty thick, and as broad at the tail, 

 almost, as in the middle : his colour a very fine brown, ribbed with yellow, 

 and much yellower on the belly than the back : he has two or three whisks 

 also at the tag of his tail, and two little horns upon his head : his wings, 

 when full grown, are double, and flat down his back, of the same colour, 

 but rather darker than his body, and longer than it, though he makes but 

 little use of them ; for you shall rarely see him flying, though often 

 swimming and paddling with several feet he has under his belly, upon the 

 water, without stirring a wing. But the Drake will mount steeple-height 

 into the air ; though he is to be found upon flags and grass too, and indeed 

 everywhere, high and low, near the river ; there being so many of them 

 in their season as, were they not a very inoffensive insect, would look like 

 a plague ; and these drakes, since I forgot to tell you before, I will tell 

 you here, are taken by the fish to that incredible degree, that upon a calm 

 day you shall see the still deeps, continually, all over circles by the fishes 

 rising, who will gorge themselves with those flies till they purge again 

 out of their gills : and the Trouts are at that time so lusty and strong, that 

 one of eight or ten inches long will then more struggle and tug, and 

 more endanger your tackle, than one twice as big in winter. But 

 pardon this digression. 



This Stone-fly then we dape or dibble with as with the Drake, but with 

 this difference, that whereas the Green-Drake is common both to stream 

 and still, and to all hours of the day, we seldom dape with this but in the 

 streams, for in a whistling wind, a made fly, in the deep, is better, and 

 rarely, but early and late, it not being so proper for the mid-time of the 

 day ; though a great Grayling will then take it very well in a sharp stream, 

 and here and there, a Trout too, but much better toward eight, nine, ten, 

 or eleven of the clock at night, at which time also the best fish rise, and 

 the later the better, provided you can see your fly ; and when you can- 

 not, a made fly will murder, which is to be made thus : the dubbing, of 

 bear's dun with a little brown and yellow camlet very well mixt, but so 

 placed that your fly may be more yellow on the belly and towards the 

 tail, underneath, than in any other part ; and you are to place two or 

 three hairs of a black cat's beard on the top of the hook, in your arming, so 

 as to be turned up when you warp on your dubbing, and to stand almost 

 upright, and staring one from another ; and note, that your fly is to be 

 ribbed with yellow silk ; and the wings long, and very large, of the dark 

 grey feather of a mallard. 



14. The next May-fly is the BLACK-FLY ; made with a black body, of 

 the whirl of an ostrich feather, ribbed with silver twist, and the black 

 hackle of a cock over all ; and is a killing fly, but not to be named with 

 either of the other. 



15. The last May-fly, that is, of the four pretenders, is the LITTLE 

 YELLOW MAY-FLY ; in shape exactly the same with the Green-drake, but 

 a very little one, and of as bright a yellow as can be seen : which is made 



