PISCATORIAL ENTOMOLOGY. Ill 



oped, and the whole are deposited in a shorter time than 

 another insect would consume in laying one." 



Our own experience tells us that they live from eleven 

 to fourteen days nine days as green, the remainder 

 gray and that they do not propagate their species until 

 they reach the final or perfect state, viz., that of gray 

 drakes. Nor do they lay eight hundred eggs. Our in- 

 vestigations go to prove three or four hundred to be the 

 utmost possible limit ; and, as to their depositing the 

 whole instantly, the idea is absurd. 



We have seen, more than once, Stone and Cinnamon 

 flies and common moths lay eggs at the rate of sixty per 

 minute one per second ; but with the up-winged insects 

 the operation is much more leisurely achieved. Floods 

 do not deter or retard the appearance of the water flies, 

 further than what damage may be done in a sandy or 

 loose-bottomed river by the larvaB being crushed or swept 

 away. 



When the weather is seasonable, the drake appears 

 upon some waters literally in swarms, so thick that to 

 fill the live-fly basket is often the work of but a few 

 moments. The exact annual time to a few days when 

 they come "up" upon each river is slightly subservient 

 to the weather. 



The Gray or Black Drake is the metamorphosis or 

 transformation of the green. The color is black and 

 white, and the fly finely and minutely freckled in the 

 wings. The body is milk white, the ribs faintly touched 

 with black, as also each extremity of the body. The legs 

 and tail are black, the latter being double the length of 

 the former. These flies are only prevalent as the season 

 of the drake begins to wane. They whirl in clouds in the 

 shadows of trees near and overhanging the water, strag- 

 glers ever and anon dropping upon its surface to deposit 

 eggs, which occurs particularly towards evening. In this 



