THE WINGS. 67 



indifferent than with regard to the quality of the silk, 

 which cannot, if it possesses sufficient strength to take 

 on the wax without giving way, be used too fine. 



I now open my repository of feathers and hackles, 

 placing before me the required number of the latter or 

 a small quantity of prepared dubbing instead. My next 

 step is to make ready and lay out before me, in con- 

 venient order, the wings of the intended fly-hooks. In 

 detaching these from the feather, I do not, like many 

 fly-dressers, use knife or scissors, but generally strip 

 them off by means of my thumb and forefinger. Such, 

 I allow, is not the most economical mode of procedure, 

 but it embraces this advantage, that it preserves to the 

 fibres or strips of feather composing each individual 

 wing, their co-adhesive power, so that, on tying on the 

 wings, less derangement or separation of the parts is 

 liable to take place; for although the fibres of some 

 feathers are naturally linked to each other all along, to 

 the very rim or extremity, others, especially those of the 

 mal drake and birds of soft and oily plumage, have but 

 a small measure of this peculiarity, and depend, as the 

 principle of their connexion, chiefly upon the roots or 

 lower ends of the fibres in question. 



Having assorted and paired off the wings, as well as 

 arranged, and made ready the hackles, dubbing, &c., I 

 proceed forthwith to accomplish the dressing. This I 

 commence, by lifting one of the hooks with the thumb 

 and forefinger of my left hand, and applying at the 

 same time to its shank the requisite length of gut. 

 These, by means of one of the waxed silk -threads, above 

 mentioned, I firmly unite together, commencing about 

 the centre of the shank, and turning the silk over them, 

 at least four or five times, in an upward direction, 



