The Compleat ^Angler 



The Black-fly, and 

 The little yellow May-fly. 



And all these have their champions and advocates to dispute and 

 plead their priority ; though I do not understand why the two last 

 named should ; the first two having so manifestly the advantage, both 

 in their beauty, and the wonderful execution they do in their season. 



1 1 . Of these the green-drake comes in about the twentieth of this 

 month, or betwixt that and the latter end (for they are sometimes 

 sooner, and sometimes later, according to the quality of the year) ; but 

 never well taken till towards the end of this month, and the begin- 

 ning of June. The stone-fly comes much sooner, so early as the 

 middle of April ; but is never well taken till towards the middle of 

 May, and continues to kill much longer than the green-drake stays 

 with us, so long as to the end almost of June ; and indeed, so long 

 as there are any of them to be seen upon the water ; and sometimes 

 in an artificial fly, and late at night, or before sunrise in the morning, 

 longer. 



Now both these flies (and I believe many others, though I think 

 not all) are certainly, and demonstratively bred in the very rivers 

 where they are taken : our cadis or cod-bait which lie under stones in 

 the bottom of the water, most of them turning into those two flies, 

 and being gathered in the husk, or crust, near the time of their 

 maturity, are very easily known and distinguished, and are, of all 

 other, the most remarkable, both for their size, as being of all other 

 the biggest (the shortest of them being a full inch long or more), and 

 for the execution they do, the trout and grayling being much more 

 greedy of them than of any others ; and indeed the trout never feeds 

 fat, nor comes into his perfect season, till these flies come in. 



Of these the green-drake never discloses from his husk, till he be 

 first there grown to full maturity, body, wings, and all ; and then he 

 creeps out of his cell, but with his wings so crimpt and ruffled, by 

 being prest together in that narrow room, that they are, for some 

 hours, totally useless to him ; by which means he is compelled either 

 to creep upon the flags, sedges, and blades of grass (if his first rising 

 from the bottom of the water be near the banks of the river) till the 

 air and sun stiffen and smooth them ; or, if his first appearance above 



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