THE ERXE. 393 



history of the Parson, I trust he will excuse me for making 

 the information upon such an interesting point public. 



' My dear Sir, I send four Parsons I have borrowed 

 from Mr. Hobson, and I will send you a couple made 

 with summer duck in the wing. The first ' Parson,' and 

 called from him, was used by the Rev. Arthur Meyrick 

 of Komsbury ; it was two large toppings, a yellow body, 

 yellow hackle, very thin twist run close together up 

 the body I mean half as close as in any of those flies 

 I send. He said he got it from Lord Bolingbroke at 

 Christchurch. He changed the body to orange; both 

 were silk bodies. 



The late Mr. William Larket, of Derby, put cock of 

 the rock in the wing. I think I put the first fur body to 

 the fly it was orange pig's wool. Mr. Larket and then 

 Mr. Hobson altered the fur to a mixture of red and yellow. 

 Mr. Hobson added to this the purple and fiery brown under 

 the wing, which Pat McKay borrowed and adopted, and 

 nothing has beaten this pattern. 



'Yours, 



S. SHEIL.' 



The flies sent are all very similiar to the patterns 

 already described, save that some of them have in the 

 wing strips of summer or wood-duck, as it is more com- 

 monly termed, instead of pintail. Some have merely the 

 toppings and two cock of the rock feathers in the wing. 

 Most of them have longish kingfisher feathers at the 

 cheek. Some have and some have not the bit of tippet 

 for an under wing. Some, instead of jay, have a medium 

 blue hackle at shoulder, and some a claret hackle. In 

 these latter cases, the hackle is dressed outside or over 

 the wing, the ribs put on over that ; these are macaw 

 where the blue feather changes to red at the points. 



