FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 285 



families of flies to which the fly fisher's imitations chiefly belong : 

 (i) Epliemera, (2) Phryganex. The Ephemera include a. great 

 variety of species, from the May fly to the tiny Jenny Spinner. 

 They have a long life in the water as larvse in the form of little 

 green dragons, crawling about the roots of sedges and water 

 weeds ; and a very short one as perfect insects, having their 

 ' little day of sunny bliss,' during which the sexes mingle and 

 the females drop their ova on the stream. 



Under certain conditions of the weather they ' hatch out ' 

 from the larva state in prodigious numbers, leaving their empty 

 skins, like insect ghosts, on rushes, flags, or waterside grass. I 

 was once witness at Bray Weir early in July to a singular 

 phenomenon in the shape of a countless swarm of ' Yellow 

 Sallies.' They gathered over the Thames shortly before dusk, 

 and formed a dense yellow cloud extending some 150 yards in 

 length, 30 in breadth, and 3 in depth ; only a slight undulating 

 movement in the mass, and the restless flashing up of scale fish 

 from below to secure the stragglers who dropped out of the 

 ranks, showing that what I saw was a prodigy of insect life 

 and not an atmospheric phenomenon. 



The artificial flies which represent the Ephemera are very 

 various in size and colour ; but they are all alike in attempting 

 to represent by the most delicate feathers for the most part 

 mottled the gauzy wings of the natural insect. They are also 

 alike in having three 'wisps' behind- -single strands of hair or 

 feather to imitate the delicate filaments at the tail of the 

 natural fly, which seem designed to steady and regulate the up- 

 and-down movements of the insect, especially in the act of 

 dropping its eggs. The feathers most used in dressing flies of 

 this family are those of the wild drake (dark brown, pale grey, 

 or dyed yellow) ; of the starling, landrail, snipe, and dotterel. 



The Phryganete are a less numerous family, nor, as far as 

 my own observation goes, do they ever appear on the water in 

 such amazing swarms. They often, however, muster pretty 

 strong, and certain species are continually 'hatching out' 

 during a great part of the year from the bundles of vegetable 



