PISCATORIAL ENTOMOLOGY. 103 



rise to the surface only to fulfill their natural functions, 

 living but a few days, and ever delighting to sport on or 

 near their native element. Not so the land flies. They 

 do not habitually frequent the water, being seldom seen 

 upon it, excepting when swept there by the force of the 

 wind; hence it follows that they are rarely sufficiently 

 numerous except upon cold and windy days, or after a 

 boisterous storm. 



In taking, first, the most important order of naturals 

 (the EpliemeridcB family), we deal with what has hitherto 

 been made a most intricate and formidable list of in- 

 sects, modern naturalists dividing and sub-dividing into 

 sections and sub-sections until the poet Pope's "thou- 

 sands of winged insects " threaten to descend from the 

 ideal into stern reality. Personal observations, extend- 

 ing over a period of fifty years, lead us to affirm the 

 greater part of this extensive classification to be perfectly 

 needless. There are, in fact, but four different species 

 of Up-winged insects, these forming the Ephemeridce 

 family. The prevailing temperature of the atmosphere 

 and the watar at the time of the larva and pupa arriving 

 at the stage of maturity, is largely instrumental in in- 

 fluencing the color, the body of the insect particularly 

 being susceptible to change from these effects. 



The four species here referred to are the ordinary 

 Olive and Iron Blue Duns, the Large Browns, and the 

 May-fly or Green Drake.* 



The Olive Dun makes its first appearance in February, 

 when it is known as the Blue Dun, or February Flapper. 

 It then presents a dead-lead color, the inclement weather 

 then seasonable causing the fly to assume so sombre a 

 hue. A few weeks later, if the weather be more genial, 

 it is a shade lighter upon the body, when it is styled the 



* These flies are also made in the United States, and used on some 

 of our native waters. 



