MARCH FLIES 145 



much more beautiful insect. Its wings, body, and tail are 

 longer, more slender, and more lustrous, its colour being 

 entirely changed ; the body being of brown-red, the legs red, 

 and the wings of a bright steely hue. It is a very lively and 

 strong flying insect, and though it occasionally comes on the 

 water in the day-time, yet it more often comes out in the cool 

 of the evening, when it may be seen dancing up and down, 

 rising and falling again in a very peculiar and striking manner, 

 in thousands. A slight shower of rain then will fill your creel 

 rapidly. As the blue and yellow duns vary in hue, so do the 

 spinners from a dark burnt sienna colour (almost red) to a 

 very light brown, the wings ranging also from a steel hue, 

 to an almost transparent white, like glass. The spinners 

 are only second in the estimation of the trout to the duns, 

 and a good stock and variety of them should always be kept 

 by the angler. The usually so-called red spinner has various 

 costumes assigned to it ; few of them are alike, probably 

 because there are many spinners varying but slightly. " Ephe- 

 mera " gives one dressing of the red spinner ; Ronalds, 

 another ; Wade, in Halcyon, three others ; Jackson, another ; 

 and Theakstone, another, and hardly any of them are alike. 

 Body, dark red-brown silk, ringed with fine gold thread ; 

 legs, a red hackle ; tail, three wisps of the same ; wing, a dark 

 shiny brown feather, the more brilliant and transparent the 

 better. This is nearer to " Ephemera's " directions than any 

 others. The body and legs are all pretty plain sailing, but the 

 great difficulty in the fly rests in the wings. There are various 

 feathers used for the wing of this fly, none of which, to my 

 mind, at all accurately represent it, for the wings are so 

 brilliant, sparkling, and transparent, that a mere mass of 

 dull feathers would seem a hopeless imitation indeed ; the 

 darker feather from a starling's, or rather from a hen black- 

 bird's, wing is often used. The inside part of the brown tinged 

 feather in a jay's wing, brown owl, drake, and many others 

 are employed ; but the best imitation in feathers, to my mind, 

 is conveyed by the dark shining tips of a blue cock's hackle 

 those which are grizzled or freckled with a golden tinge at 

 the point, hitting off the resemblance almost exactly, the open 

 fibrous nature of the hackle giving the glassy transparency so 

 much required, and which cannot be conveyed by any other 

 feather, the springiness and play of the cock's hackle being 

 required here also. Hooks, Nos. 9 and 10. I always have my 

 spinners dressed with the above wing and they answer admirably. 



