FAXCY FLIES NEEDLESS. 191 



lout it is rather a fluke if they do, while the odds are that 

 they don't. I will give a list of the best of them : firstly, 

 because, as I said, they do kill sometimes ; and, secondly, 

 because my book would certainly be held incomplete by 

 many anglers without it. But always first try the fly that 

 is on, or has been on, or which you think ought to be on, 

 before you venture upon these fancies ; and be sure that, 

 wherever you go, you will find your March browns, stone 

 flies and drakes, or your willow flies, alders, sand flies and 

 cinnamons, your duns and spinners, &c., feeding the trout 

 more or less. These are your ground-tackle, your hold- 

 fast, and if you once master enough of a fly-fisher's ento- 

 mology to get a fair knowledge of the ordinary succession 

 of flies which usually throng the water in the generality 

 of rivers, you need not venture upon the uncertain realms 

 of fancy at all ; you may go anywhere east, west, north or 

 south and never trouble a professional to tell you what 

 is on his water, or what will kill best, for you will know 

 what flies should be in season, and if you have any doubt 

 a glance will tell you. 



The following list is partly the result of my own expe- 

 rience, and partly that of others. The flies fed on by trout 

 have been the same from all ages, unless we pin our faith on 

 4 The Vestiges of Creation ; ' and therefore one has nothing 

 to do but to take them from those who have gone before, 

 selecting the best favoured by the fish, and leaving the 

 worst, and to make such suggestions on dressing them, 

 &c., as experience may dictate. 



The principal flies which, as I have said, the angler 

 relies upon, are those born of the water. The most useful 

 of these are divided into two great orders, viz. the Neuro- 

 petera, or nerve-winged (from vevpov, a nerve, and TTTepov, a 

 wing these are the flies which have smooth wings, veined 

 to and fro like the drakes, the stone and the alder flies), 

 and the Trichoptera, or hairy-winged (from fy/f, gen. 



