SALMON FLIES. 333 



CHAPTER X. 



SALMON FLIES. 



' . LIST OF SALMON FLIES GENERAL FLIES LIST OF FLIES FOR 



SCOTCH RIVERS. 



ONE of the most difficult things in tying flies from de- 

 scription is to hit off the right shade of colour. I have 

 done my best to overcome this difficulty in point of de- 

 scription ; but, more or less, it must always exist, and the 

 fly tyer must not be angry with me if I find myself un- 

 able, out of twenty shades of green, for example, to 

 describe in words any particular shade beyond the possi- 

 bility of a mistake. 



The component parts of a salmon fly are variously 

 named by different writers, and I have therefore, to avoid 

 mistakes, at Plate VIII. fig. 8, p. 284, given a figure of a 

 salmon fly, in which each part is lettered and named 

 according to the part indicated, as follows: a, the tag; 

 6, the tail ; c, the but ; d, the tinsel ; e, the body ; /, the 

 hackle ; <?, the shoulder hackle ; &, the under wing ; i, the 

 upper wing ; j, the cheek ; k, the head ; , loop. 



I have been many years collecting this list of flies, of 

 the majority of which I have brought patterns away from 

 the rivers themselves, so that they are descriptions of the 

 actual flies used on the rivers by the habitues thereof. 

 When these have been collected long since, I have verified 

 them subsequently by reference to old friends and persons 



