70 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



Pisc. You, perhaps, may think now, that I rake together this 

 trumpery, as you call it, for show only ; to the end that such as 

 see it, which are not many I assure you, may think me a great 

 master in the art of angling : but, let me tell you, here are some 

 colors, as contemptible as they seem here, that are very hard to 

 be got ; and scarce any one of them which, if it should be lost, 

 I should not miss, and be concerned about the loss of it too, once 



mohair, which resists the water and preserves its color. " A rich dun dub- 

 bing may be procured by combing, with a fine-toothed comb, the back of a 

 lead-colored grey-hound. Hog's fur, which grows between the roots of the 

 bristles, dyed of various colors, bears fur, fox's fur, fur got off the belly 

 of a hedge-hog, the light yellow fur from the martin's neck, are all useful 

 as dubbing. Dubbings of various hues and of excellent quality, resisting 

 the water well, and not losing their color when in it, are to be found in 

 tan-yards among the hairs that fall off the skins, and likewise among pieces 

 of plaster that are stripped from old walls or ceilings. Lime not only 

 changes the original color of hair, but adds to its capability of withstand- 

 ing water. The brighter and finer the gold or silver twist, used in ribbing 

 flies, the better. The scarcest and best hackles are duns of all shades, 

 particularly those which have the clearest different shades of blue ; fur- 

 nace-hackles, of a red color, with a black streak along the stem up the 

 middle of the feather ; red hackles, light and dark ginger, black and griz- 

 zled hackles. Hackles are got in the greatest perfection from off the 

 upper part of the necks of full-grown cocks, where they grow from half 

 an inch to two inches long. When dun hackles cannot be procured from 

 cocks, you must use those from dun hens ; but they are, from the softness 

 of their fibre, less capable of resisting water so well as those from the 

 male bird The best time for plucking dun birds is in the middle of win- 

 ter, for, as Mr. Bainbridge observes, ' the feathers are then perfect, and 

 free from that disagreeable matter which at other times is generally found 

 in the pen-part of the feather.' Dun hackles, when plucked in March, and 

 exposed to the action of the sun's heat, assume a fine yellow tinge, and 

 become that useful feather called the yellow dun. Excellent hackles may 

 be got from off' the back of the grouse, the tail of the common wren, the 

 breast and back of the partridge, the outside part, nearest the body, of the 

 golden plover's wing, the inside of the snipe's wing," &c. — Shipley and 

 Fitzgibbon. In a word, the fly-maker will seize upon everything that may 

 by any possibility be of use. The angler should be provided with two 

 pocket-books, the one for his flies, the leaves of which are of parchment, 

 with pieces of cork at the corners to keep them wide enough apart to pre- 

 vent the flies being bruised ; the other, so arranged as to contain the mate- 

 rials for fly-making in different divisions. These books should be stitched 

 not glued together, as, in the latter case, they will be ruined by being 

 wetted. They can be bought at the tackle-shops. — im. Ed. 



