i 44 A BOOK ON ANGLING 



smooth and not hairy. So much, however, do the duns, blue 

 and yellow, vary in shade, that with perhaps a dozen different 

 shades in my book, I have at times been unable satisfactorily to 

 hit the exact hue ; and as colour is more to the fish than any- 

 thing else, I cannot recommend too strongly to the angler the 

 desirability of having a good and complete selection of duns of 

 various shades. Such a selection I find invaluable, and I 

 always endeavour to keep the stock up to working order, 

 as one or the other is nearly always in the water. To show 

 how confusion may arise by giving names to the various 

 shades of this fly, instead of simply treating them as varied 

 shades of the same fly, I may cite, for example, that " Ephe- 

 mera," in his March flies, reproduces this fly under four 

 different names the early dark dun, the olive fly, the dark 

 hare's ear, and the hare's ear and yellow ; a little variety 

 in the shade is all the real difference that exists between them. 



For the Early Blue Dun, or olive dun, hare's ear body wound 

 on with olive silk ; two turns of a medium blue dun hackle, 

 just dipped in onion dye* to give it a faint olive tinge. Some 

 use no hackle, but pick out the hare's ear at the breast for 

 legs. A darkish bit of the feather from the starling's wing, 

 stained in the same manner, and dressed rather upright, for 

 a wing, with a couple of fibres of the hackle for the tail (not 

 too long), is said to give a reasonably good imitation of the 

 fly. As I have said, I think the body too rough, and I prefer to 

 dress it with an olive-coloured silk body, with a fine thread of 

 yellow silk for ribbing. This may be hit off of the right hue by 

 well waxing a bit of light yellow sewing silk with cobbler's 

 wax, and then untwisting it, so that a portion of the interior 

 or unwaxed part may come to light. By winding this on with 

 some care, a very good alternation of olive and pale yellow 

 rings may be made, and no better blue dun body can well be 

 conceived. By less waxing and more display of the unwaxed 

 silk, the shade may be easily lightened. For years I used no 

 other, and I killed with it all over the kingdom. In all these 

 flies avoid over hackling them ; it is a grave fault. Hooks, 

 Nos. 9 and 10, or smaller if for very fine water. After a short 

 existence, this fly changes into 



The Red Spinner (see Plate VIII, Fig. 5; p. 134), or red- 

 tailed spinner of Jackson, and orange drake of Theakstone. 

 This is the imago of which the blue dun is the pseudimago, 

 and after its transformation it comes forth a brilliant and 



* Made by steeping the peelings of onions in water. F.F. 



