A VARIETY OF DUXS. 



one can hardly say ; probably they resemble various insects, 

 larvae of beetles, or flies, spiders, &c., to some extent, and 

 hence their favour with the fishes. These flies will kill 

 more or less throughout the season. The angler wha 

 cannot kill fish with the list I have furnished will, I fear, 

 find angling unprofitable. Any good angler would kill 

 with half of them. I doubt if I use more than a score of 

 flies in the season. The flies most in favour with me, and 

 which are by far the best of all for the angler to place his 

 hopes upon, are the duns and their changes the spinners. 

 I do not think there is any stream where from one end of 

 the season to the other some of these delicate little flies 

 will not be found to kill, therefore the angler should 

 always be provided ^v^th a good stock and variety of them. 

 There is a great number of them, of various shades and 

 sizes, but the angler will greatly simplify matters if he 

 will act according to the following advice : 



Have two sizes of each fly let the largest be dressed on 

 a No. 10 hook, and the smallest on a No. 12, or smaller if 

 required. Of blue duns he should have four shades 

 very dark for the iron-blue; a shade lighter for the later 

 swarms of that fly ; next, the ordinary blue dun, and 

 lastly, a light pale blue dun, almost silvery. The three 

 darkest of these shades should be ribbed with fine yellow 

 glovers' silk ; the light one need not be. The wings and 

 hackles should keep pace with the bodies in shade. Of 

 yellow duns the angler should have one size only of the 

 large yellow dun previously mentioned ; the common 

 yellow dun, one size ; a lighter buff-coloured, two sizes ; 

 a lighter still of almost a grey silk, two sizes ; and one 

 with an apple-green body. If he chooses further to vary 

 these shades by running one into the other or by even 

 medium tints of olive, yellow, and green, so much the 

 better. The olives vary a good deal, and most of these 

 have darkish wings and yellowish legs. One or two of 



