1 8 FLY-FISHING. 



tints in the selected families. What, then, are the 

 most favourite families of flies most favourite,, 

 that is, in the eyes of the Trout ? Without ques- 

 tion the Ephemcrid(Z and Phryganida, and for a 

 very good reason, as with hardly an exception they 

 are all bred in the beds, banks, and reeds of the 

 waters over which they afterwards fly. To the 

 first-named family belong, roughly speaking, the 

 whole collection of the "duns," and "spinners" 

 the drakes or May-flies, the dark mackerel, the 

 sand-fly, and the March brown ; whilst the latter 

 includes the cinnamon, the grannom or green-fly, 

 the willow-fly, and, more important than any, the 

 stone-fly, or " water cricket," which in the early 

 part of the year is so plentiful on many rivers. 

 From these two great families, in fact, some of 

 which are on the water every day of the year, fully 

 three-fourths of the contents of most fly-books 

 will be found to consist ; they therefore commend 

 themselves as the families from which our typical 

 flies should be made. 



As regards form or shape no question can arise, 

 as the selected families are all unmistakably and 

 characteristically flies, in the proper sense of the 

 term, having wings, legs, and, I think without an 

 exception, " whisks," or hair-like appendages at the 



