TROUT FLY-MAKING. 5? 



so long ago as two thousand years for nothing is new 

 but that which is forgotten but it is strange that we 

 find no references made to it by the ancients except Mar- 

 tial and ^Elian. The former simply says : 



" Who hath not seen the scarus rise 

 Decoyed and caught by fraudful flies." 



But ^Elian gives an account of the hippurus and its dress- 

 ing in the following complete manner in his " De Natura 

 Animalium " : " The Macedonians who toil on the banks 

 of the Astreus, which flows midway between Berea and 

 Thessalonica, are in the habit of catching a fish in 

 that river by means of a particular fly called the hip- 

 purus. A very singular insect it is, bold and trouble- 

 some, like all its kind ; in size a hornet, marked like a 

 wasp, buzzing like a bee. The predilection of the fish 

 for this prey, though familiarly known to all who inhabit 

 the district, does not induce the angler to attempt their 

 capture by impaling the living insect. Adepts in the 

 art had contrived a taking device (captiosa qucedam ma- 

 china) to circumvent them, for which purpose they in- 

 vest the body of a hook with purple wool and having 

 two wings of a waxy color, so as to form an exact imita- 

 tion of the hippurus. They drop these abstruse cheats 

 gently down stream. The scaly pursuers, who hastily 

 rise and expect nothing but a dainty bait, are immedi- 

 ately fixed by the hook." According to the " Bibliotheca 

 Piscatoria " this passage was first pointed out by Stephen 

 Oliver, author of " Scenes and Eecollections of Fly- 

 Fishing, " and I have transcribed it because it BO clearly 

 identifies the existence of the subject before us in the 



