108 Till: EARLY BLUE DUN. 



various shades of this fly, instead of simply treating them 

 as varied shades of the same fly, I may cite, for example, 

 that ' Ephemera,' 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 1 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 in- 

 terior 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 \vell be conceived. By less waxing and more 

 display of the unwaxed silk, the shade may be easily light- 

 ened. 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, unless you want them for float- 

 ing, when they must be well feathered. Hooks, Nos. 9 and 

 10, or smaller if for very fine water. After a short exist- 

 ence, this fly changes into 



The Red Spinner (see Plate VII. fig. 5, p. 185), or red- 



1 Made by steeping the peelings of onions in water. 



