Fish-hooks. 43 



His observations and his deductions therefrom du- 

 plicated mine ; and we agreed that the brown mallard 

 feather that brown mottled feather which grows near 

 the butt of the wing on each side of the drake mallard, 

 grayish at the root, shading into dark brown at the 

 end was one of the most valuable to the fly-fisher- 

 man ; that it should be tied so that the wing was not 

 upstanding in the usual manner, but so as closely to 

 embrace and extend beyond the upper half of the body 

 of the fly, as has been described ; and that either in 

 still water, or on a deep pool in a trout brook where the 

 larger fish would naturally abide, it must prove most 

 seductive. 



It may not be amiss to say that this wing cannot be 

 made from a single feather. One strip must be taken 

 from a feather from the right side, and another strip 

 be taken from a feather from the left side of the mal- 

 lard ; and the two strips must be so laid together that 

 the inner, the less-colored, faces of the strips are in con- 

 tact. The matched pair will then show a curve like a 

 scimitar, and the concave edge is to go next the body 

 of the fly. It should be tied on large hooks ; for the 

 large fish of Maine and Canada, on Nos. 2 and 4 ; for 

 those localities where small flies are habitually used, 

 on Nos. 8 and 10. 



