PREPARING JAY HACKLE. 469 



clumsily, take a very sharp knife, and with great care not 

 to cut or damage the quill, shave off some of the pith 

 until you have it to the requisite thickness of substance. 

 It is a common practice to prepare a large number of jay's 

 feathers thus, so as to have plenty at hand ; but it is not a 

 good plan, as they are apt to fade somewhat, and lose 

 some of their brilliancy, which is a great desideratum in a 

 jay's feather. The newer you can get your feathers the 

 better, and it is not therefore desirable to prepare a very 

 large stock, more especially as, by long keeping, the 

 stripped and shaved quill gets dry and brittle and weak, 

 and an old one is very apt to break in the rolling on. 

 Hackles, more particularly in the spring, when kelts 

 abound whose lean jaws and long teeth play havoc with 

 good flies, are very apt to get cut ; they then unroll, and 

 the fly is almost useless. In such flies the method of 

 rolling on the tinsel the reverse way, and after the hackle, 

 so as to strengthen the hackle, and to secure it from 

 damage as much as possible, will be found useful. This 

 plan was first used on the Spey flies, and it is invariably 

 used on them now : it is by no means a bad plan, but 

 requires some little care and neatness. 



And now we come to the nicest operation of all, which 

 is that of winging the fly. If the body and hackle have 

 been put on judgmatically, a short space at the head of 

 the hook is left uncovered. See that the silk is strong 

 and well waxed, and then select the feathers or fibres of 

 feathers you design to use. In some flies but one feather, 

 as mallard or turkey, is used to form the wing. Two slips 

 of this material can be tied on in the usual way, no further 

 directions being needed than are given in trout-fly tying. 

 In some flies, however, especially in the Dee flies, these 

 wings are tied on so as to spread out apart. It is needless 

 to say that they must set at the same angle precisely, and 

 this the tyro will not find easy to accomplish. See that 



