THE RED SPINSTER. 199 



tailed spinner of Jackson, and orange drake of Theak- 

 stone. This is the imago of which the blue dun is the 

 pseudimago, and after its transformation it comes forth a 

 brilliant and 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 till your creel rapidly. 

 As the blue and yellow duns vary in hue, so do the spin- 

 ners 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. * Ephemera ' gives one dressing of the red 

 spinner ; Konalds, 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 wire ; 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, transparent, that a mere mass of dull feathers 



