A LIST OF 



THE MOST USEFUL NATURAL FLIES 

 WITH THEIR IMITATIONS 



THE SPRING BLACK 



THIS is the first Black of the season, on 

 most running waters appears about the latter 

 end of March, and is good until about the 

 middle of May, when the Black Caterpillars 

 and Black Gnat take its place. 



The hook is No. i \ the wing from the quill 

 of the Swift ; body, silk, the colour of Lundy 

 Foote's snuff, with a bit of fine black Ostrich's 

 herl laid on like a screw, to show the silk 

 underneath ; and a small hen's hackle, 1 of a 

 sooty black, for legs. 



About four-and-twenty years ago, a friend 

 and myself were fishing, in the middle of April, 

 in the Slate-Quarry Dub, on Tweed, a little 

 below Elibank Wood. We had come, in a 

 chaise, from Selkirk (eight or nine miles) that 



1 Cock's Hackles. The hackles of game fowls are 

 preferable to those of any other breed, being narrow and 

 well tapered. The hackles of well bred bantams are 

 also very good for small flies. 



9 B 



