THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 217 



You are also to know, that there be divers kinds of cadis, or 

 case-worms, that are to be found in this nation in several distinct 

 counties, and in several little brooks that relate to bigger rivers ; 

 as namely, one cadis called a piper,* whose husk or case is a 

 piece of reed about an inch long or longer, and as big about as 

 the compass of a two-pence : these worms being kept three or four 

 days in a woollen bag with sand at the bottom of it, and the bag 

 wet once a day, will in three or four days turn to be yellow ; and 

 these be a choice bait for the chub or chavender, or indeed for 

 any great fish, for it is a large bait. 



There is also a lesser cadis- worm, called a cockspur,* being 

 in fashion like the spur of a cock, sharp at one end ; and the 

 case or house in which this dwells is made of small husks, and 

 gravel, and slime, most curiously made of these, even so as to 

 be wondered at, but not to be made by man, no more than a 

 king-fisher's nest can, which is made of little fishes' bones, and 

 have such a geometrical interweaving and connexion, as the like 

 is not to be done by the art of man : this kind of cadis is a choice 

 bait for any float-fish ; it is much less than the piper-cadis, and 

 to be so ordered ; and these may be so preserved, ten, fifteen, or 

 twenty days, or it may be longer. 



There is also another cadis,* called by some a straw-worm, 

 and by some a ruff-coat, whose house or case is made of little 



* Cadis worms are the larva cases of many species of Phryganea, which 

 class includes all those water-flies that have long antennae and moth-liJce 

 wings, often veined, but without powder. They have four wings, which, 

 when closed, lie flat on their backs, the upper pair being folded over the 

 lower, " the flies called by anglers the willow-fly, the alder-fly, and the 

 dun, &c., are," Sir Humphrey Davy says, " of this kind." They deposit 

 their eggs on the leaves of trees overhanging the water, and then produce 

 small larvae, which drop into the water. These spin for themselves a case 

 like a silk worm, and, by a glutinous matter which exudes through it, ce- 

 ment about them outside cases, some of leaves, some of sticks, some of 

 stones or shells. The cases vary in shape, some being almost cylindri- 

 cal, others elongated cones, others resembling shells. They are plenti- 

 fully found in our streams (in the month of May), adhering to stones or old 

 logs at the bottom, often looking like a multitude of little animated sticks 

 an inch or less in length. They feed on aquatic plants and insects, put- 

 ting only their heads and legs from the case. At the time of their change 

 into the fly they leave their cases, rise to the surface of the water, when 



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