112 THE SCIENTIFIC ANGLER. 



act they are generally caught by the fish, which inces- 

 santly feed, so long as their prey is plentiful. 



This fly is not nearly so much appreciated as the green, 

 being in its perfect state more active, for, in common 

 with other ephemeral transformations, it improves more 

 in outward form than inward substance ; hence the pref- 

 erence of the wily fish. The Gray Drake* generally 

 takes shelter under the leaves of trees and bushes during 

 mid-day in sultry weather, emerging in the evening in 

 incredible numbers, and sporting in the air in every di- 

 rection. When the fly is matured enough to lay eggs it 

 is designated the Spent Black, owing to its gradually 

 getting darker in color towards the end of its existence. 

 The operation of depositing the eggs so exhausts the fly, 

 that it dies immediately on the completion of this func- 

 tion, a hollow shell being all that remains. 



This insect, when in its new-born aerial dress, flutters 

 heavily, like the freshly-fledged song bird, and then ap- 

 pears devoid of all sense of feeling; but in its last stage 

 it is too delicate for live-fly fishing; indeed, it is then so 

 marvellously fragile that it may be said to be at the 

 mercy of a breath of wind, the slightest touch ending its 

 existence. In some instances this fly appears of a much 

 brighter green, the metamorphosis being of a freckled 

 red-brown. This is commonly called the "mackerel," 

 light or dark. It frequents slow-running, thickly-wooded 

 streams, but is of little importance to the fisherman. 



The Flat-winged flies consist of a far greater variety of 

 species ; but, even taking them as a whole, they are of 

 but secondary importance from a piscatorial point of 

 view. We shall now, however, proceed to enumerate 

 the two leading orders of the flat-winged insects which 

 are requisite to a complete equipment. 



* A standard fly with us. 



