FOR FLY DRESSING. 9 



persuading a relative to perpetuate a good strain 

 of Blue Andalusians, and to save for my own use 

 the hackles of every bird, cock or hen (which in so 

 rare a colour as this must not be despised), killed 

 for the table, or which has succumbed to accident, 

 or to the pugnacious propensities of the remaining 

 denizens of the poultry yard. 



Another great difficulty in respect to hackles, is 

 the great proportion that are more or less deformed 

 in shape. The typically perfect hackle should 

 follow the form indicated by the annexed geo- 

 metrical sketch, in which the line A B represents 

 the full length of the cen- r 

 tral quill of the hackle after 

 stripping from it the downy 

 part at the root ; on the 

 line A B set up a perpen- 

 dicular D A c, and let A c in length be one-fourth 

 of A B ; join c B and D B. The fibres forming the 

 triangle A c B, when at right angles to A B, would 

 be those of a perfectly proportioned hackle, and, 

 although such mathematically correct things do 

 not exist in nature, the nearer they approach this 

 ideal the better will be the form of the artificial fly 

 produced. In the majority of hackles it will, how- 

 ever, be found that as they approach the point, the 

 fibres become too long in proportion, and in many 

 are actually longer than A c and A D, which should, 

 of course, be the longest fibres in the hackle. 



Red, ginger, and furnace hackles can be best ob- 



