THE BRITISH ANGLER'S LEXICON. 249 



or bronze for the colour of hooks. He seems in favour of 

 bronze, and I may say I have been more successful with that 

 colour. It is always judicious for the fly fisher when going 

 to any particular district hitherto unknown to him to ascer- 

 tain the prevailing flies used there, and a good professional 

 fly dresser should be able to give the proper flies if he is 

 told the district they are required for and the season. The 

 following list of flies has been carefully made out, and if 

 they do not catch fish it is not their fault. All or any of 

 them may be used for fly fishing in the United Kingdom, 

 but as there exists an accepted difference in the dressing 

 for each country three separate lists are appended, one 

 each for England, Scotland, and Ireland. 



ENGLISH DRESSING. 



FEBRUARY RED body, dark brown mohair and claret mixed ; wings, hen 

 pheasant ; legs, partridge neck feather. One of the earliest of river 

 flies. In some districts it comes on in the middle of February, and is 

 found till the end of March. 



BLUE Dux body, light olive silk, with a slight dubbing of blue fur, or 

 without it ; icings, starling, stained olive ; legs, light olive or dun 

 hackle ; tail, two rabbit whiskers, with or without a turn of gold tinsel 

 at tail. The above is one of the best-known of the dun flies, and found 

 on nearly every trout stream in the United Kingdom. It assumes 

 several shades, consequently there are many modes of copying it. The 

 above, if correctly dressed, gives a fairly good imitation. For an early 

 fly it ranks as one of the favourites. 



MARCH BROWN (MALE) body, hare's ear and yellow mohair mixed, rib 

 over with yellow silk or fine gold twist ; legs, partridge back or wren's 

 tail ; tail, two strands of mallard or partridge's tail feather ; wing*, 

 quill feather of hen pheasant's wing or partridge tail. This celebrated 

 fly comes on in March and continues till April, when it changes into 

 the great red spinner and disappears about the end of May. It aNo 

 kills well in August and September, and if made rather large is an 

 excellent lake fly. 



MARCH BROWN (FEMALE) body and legs same as above, ribbed gold 

 twist ; wings, lightest feather of hen pheasant's wing. 



