54 LIST OF FLIES. 



(the accoucheur general) shine warm on the water, the 

 unseen drake creeper is metamorphosed into a beautiful 

 fly, which the eye catches springing up from various 

 parts of the water, when we wonder from what or 

 whence they come ; but on looking close, the empty 

 creeper skins will be seen floating in the places. Each 

 succeeding day, for three or four weeks, continues to 

 hatch them until the whole family are brought into 

 this breathing world. Her first flight is heavy but 

 shortened by the first tree, grass, or bush, she can 

 light upon. She springs from the bosom of her cradle 

 and her nurse, surrounded by dangers, the reckless 

 swallow often traps her in her first flight. She floats 

 on the current majestic, the little "lady o' the lake ; " 

 oft' on the brink of eternity for, beneath, her deadliest 

 enemies lie watching in her track ; and in her short 

 sail with scarce time to breathe her new element 

 she is waylaid and gulped by the reckless trout. Es- 

 caped these dangers, the green drake reposes under the 

 leaves of trees and plants, in her green garb, which is 

 the covering nature has bestowed upon her to protect 

 her tender frame, on its first encounter with the air 

 and its changes. She soon grows strong and splits 

 open her green covering, at the shoulders, in the same 

 way as she did the creeper case, and casts it off, and 

 probably shortly after a second, which clears away 

 the green, and she becomes the grey drake. 



The green drake is fished both natural and artificial ; 

 and at the time she is hatching is as peerless for trout, 

 in the sunshine, as the stone fly is in the shade. The 

 large trout feed deliberately on them both ; they are 

 cotemporary and rule by turns, the empire of the 



