278 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



MAY. 



And now, sir, that we are entering into the month of May, 

 I think it requisite to beg not only your attention, but also your 

 best patience, for I must now be a little tedious with you, and 

 dwell upon this month longer than ordinary, which, that you 

 may the better endure, I must tell you, this month deserves and 

 requires to be insisted on, forasmuch as it alone, and the next 

 following, afford more pleasure to the fly angler than all the 

 rest ; and here it is that you are to expect an account of the 

 green-drake and stone-fly, promised you so long ago, and some 

 others that are peculiar to this month, and part of the month 

 following, and that, though not so great either in bulk or name, 

 do yet stand in competition with the two before named, and so 

 that it is yet undecided amongst the anglers to which of the 

 pretenders to the title of the May-fly it does properly and duly 

 belong. Neither dare I, where so many of the learned in this 

 art of angling are got in dispute about the controversy, take 

 upon me to determine ; but I think I ought to have a vote 

 amongst them, and, according to that privilege, shall give you my 

 free opinion, and, peradventure, when I have told you all, you 

 may incline to think me in the right. 



Viator. I have so great a deference to your judgment in these 

 matters, that I must always be of your opinion ; and the more 

 you speak, the faster I grow to my attention, for I can never be 

 weary of hearing you upon this subject. 



Piscator. Why, that 's encouragement enough : and now, 

 prepare yourself for a tedious lecture ; but I will first begin with 

 the flies of less esteem, (though almost any thing will take a 

 Trout in May,) that I may afterwards insist the longer upon 

 those of greater note and reputation. Know, therefore, that the 

 first fly we take notice of in this month, is called 



1. The turkey-fly; the dubbing ravelled out of some blue 

 stuff, and lapped about with yellow silk; the wings of a gray 

 mallard's feather. 



2. Next, a great hackle, or palmer-fly, with a yellow body, 

 ribbed with gold twist, and large wings, of mallard's feather 

 dyed yellow, with a red capon's hackle over all. 



3. Then a black fly ; the dubbing of a black spaniel's fur, 

 and the wings of a gray mallard's feather. 



4. After that, a light brown, with a slender body ; the dub- 

 bing twirled upon small red silk, and raised with the point of a 

 needle, that the ribs, or rows of silk, may appear through the 

 wings of the gray feather of a mallard. 



5. Next, a little dun ; the dubbing of a bear's dun whirled 

 upon yellow silk ; the wings, of the gray feather of a mallard. 



