MAY. 53 



Escaped these dangers, the green drake reposes under the 

 leaves of trees and plants, in her green garb, which is the 

 covering nature has bstowed upon her to protect her tender 

 frame on its first encounter with the air and its changes. 

 She soon grows strong and splits open her green covering, 

 at the shoulders, in the same way as she did the creeper 

 case, and casts it off, and probably shortly after a second, 

 which clears away the green, and she becomes the grey 

 drake. 



The green drake is fished both natural and artificial ; 

 and at the time she is hatching is as peerless for trout, in 

 the sunshine, as the stone fly is in the shade. The large 

 trout feed deliberately on them both ; they are cotemporary 

 and rule by turns the empire of the stream. The glories 

 of the stone fly are chiefly in the dusk of night and early 

 morn, when she hath no compeer. The green drake holds 

 her court in the full blaze of day, in undisputed majesty 

 queen of the streams, which, in clear water, renders her less 

 successful to the angler, for the quick eye of the trout catches 

 everything that flits within its vision the form of the 

 fisherman the wave of his rod or the appendages to the 

 falling fly, will rouse his fears and scare him from his food ; 

 but on sunny days and dark waters (when the green drakes 

 are hatching) every trout is on the watch hovering in the 

 current like a kite in the air wheeling from side to side to 

 snap the passing prey; and so intent upon it is he, that the 

 imperial Empress may trot over their heads unnoticed. It is 

 then the natural fly fills the craftsman's pannier, and the trout 

 she kills are in their full prime and splendour. The green 

 drake is plentiful in all the streams of Eipon the mill 

 races and dams, which in summer are well stocked with 

 trout, abound with them particularly above Bishopton 

 mill, where the trout are the finest in the neighbourhood, 

 when feeding on the green drake. She is tackled and fished 

 natural, similar to the stone fly, sometimes two on the hook, 



