ARTIFICIAL FLY-MAKING. 51 



various colours, sufficient for your purpose, accord- 

 ing to the variety of animals you take it from. 

 Such dubbing will not change colour from the in- 

 fluence of water, as the dyed wool may be liable to 

 do ; also it may be more deceptive. If you cannot 

 arrive quite so near to the colour of the pattern 

 before you from the use only of the natural 

 wool, the probabilities are that the difficulty will 

 be supplied, getting as near as may be ; and that 

 your fly, when made, will be quite as killing. 

 Many persons are very particular in the colour 

 of the silk they use in whipping on the hook, 

 that it may resemble the natural fly in colour. 

 This I think needless, because the dubbing 

 placed on the silk will conceal its colour. You 

 should have a proper dubbing book, arranged 

 in little slides to slip into the leaves, both slides 

 to be made of parchment. Number the slides 

 according to the colour of your dubbing. With 

 this book before you on a table, with a proper 

 supply of hooks and gut, with feathers also taken 

 from the neck of the game cock to make your 

 hackles, and other feathers from various birds, as 

 from the wings of a landrail, or in default of them 

 from the partridge's tail these you will find very 

 useful to make the wings of a fly. Besides these, 

 pigeons' feathers, as well as those from the wood- 



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