Il8 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PART!. 



capon's neck, or a plover's top, which is usually better : take 

 off the one side of the feather, and then take the hackle, silk, 

 or crewel, gold or silver thread, make these fast at the bent of 

 the hook, that is to say, below your arming ; then you must 

 take the hackle, the silver or gold thread, and work it up 

 to the wings, shifting or still removing your finger as you 

 turn the silk about the hook ; and still looking at every stop or 

 turn, that your gold, or what materials soever you make your 

 fly of, do lie right and neatly, and if you find they do so, then, 

 when you have made the head, make all fast : and then work 

 your hackle up to the head, and make that fast : and then, 

 with a needle or pin, divide the wing into two ; and then with 

 the arming silk whip it about cross-ways betwixt the wings ; 

 and then with your thumb you must turn the point of the 

 feather towards the bent of the hook ; and then work three or 

 four times about the shank of the hook ; and then view the pro- 

 portion, and if all be neat and to your liking, fasten. 



I confess, no direction can be given to make a man of a dull 

 capacity able to make a fly well : and yet I know this, with a 

 little practice, will help an ingenious Angler in a good degree : 

 but to see a fly made by an artist in that kind, is the best 

 teaching to make it. And, then', an ingenious Angler may 

 walk by the river and mark what flies fall on the water that 

 day, and catch one of them, if he see the Trouts leap at a fly 

 of that kind : and then having always hooks ready-hung with 

 him, and having a bag also always with him, with bear's hair, 

 or the hair of a brown or sad-colored heifer, hackles of a cock 

 or a capon, several colored silk and crewel to make the body 

 of the fly, the feathers of a drake's head, black or brown 

 sheep's wool, or hog's wool, or hair, thread of gold and of 

 silver, silk of several colors, especially sad-colored, to make the 

 fly's head ; and there be also other colored feathers both of 

 little birds and of speckled fowl: I say, having those with 

 him in a bag, and trying to make a fly, though he miss at first, 

 yet shall he at last hit it better, even to such a perfection as 



