18 LIST OF FLIES. 



eighths ; wings, three-eighths ; whisks, a quarter to half an 

 inch, with two small short feelers ; top of head, shoulders, 

 and down the back a bluish ashy hue, of lighter or darker 

 shade, upon an orange bottom ; rather lighter along the 

 sides ; along the breast and belly, and on the edges of each 

 joint ; thighs, a light grizzly hair-like transparency, with a 

 gleam of amber, and darkening to the feet. Wings, faintly 

 veined, longitudinally, and of a dim transparency of a fine 

 smoky blue tinge. When the fly is held to the light, its 

 tinges and reflections are of a light grizzly blue cast. 



Slips for wings are generally selected from those of the 

 starling ; body, orange silk, tinged and dyed with fox-cub 

 down, and two or three fibres of amber mohair. 



The blue drake hatches the first of the drake tribes 

 commencing last month, if the weather be open ; and it is 

 very probable she continues through the season ; she hatches 

 on fine days, in good numbers, from nine or ten in the 

 morning to three or four in the afternoon, and continues a 

 favorite leader through the spring. Like all the drakes, 

 she is most successful when fished in her natal garb, at the 

 time she is hatching ; she is a hardy fly, and will hatch in 

 cold weather, if it be tolerably dry and open, when there 

 is often good sport, for the flies are benumbed with the cold, 

 and cannot clear the water, which is their natural propen- 

 sity to do as soon as they are hatched, and the fishes avail 

 themselves of it. The blue drake is darkest when first 

 hatched, and soon casts her skin, when she is altogether of 

 a lighter shade and smarter fly she also casts it and 

 becomes the orange drake. 



9TH. ORANGE DRAKES Dimensions about the same as 



(6) This fly is the imago of the " Blue Dun," and generally known to the craft 

 as the " Red Spinner," but being of the same shape as its pseudo-imago, the author 

 classes it among the drakes. After a slight shower, the fish frequently rise with 

 great eagerness at this fly, the evening being the best time to employ the imitation. 

 Hardly any of the writers on fly fishing agree with respect to the wings, which are 

 so glassy and transparent as to render their successful imitation a matter of con- 



