STREAMCRAFT 



The black head and eyes of the female are some- 

 what larger than those of the male. The tail- 

 end of body is dark brown, with a dull band of 

 yellow ochre along the sides. At this end of the 

 body, pushed in a sort of cavity, is the bright 

 green egg-sac, which is easily removed. I have 

 not yet been able to tell whether the Shad-fly 

 deposits the egg-sac on the water's surface, 

 where it frequently alights, or drops it while in 

 flight; I incline to believe in the former. 



"Large females measure half an inch from 

 head to end of egg-sac, and three-quarters of 

 an inch from head to tip of wings. Egg-sacs are 

 about one-eighth of an inch long. 



"This season I was most fortunate to witness 

 a first hatch, which generally appears before the 

 great or final hatch, when the vast clouds float 

 over the river for a few hours like a severe snow- 

 storm, reaching up both forks of the river 

 (Beaverkill and Willowemoc rivers) to a 

 distance of over twenty miles. Isolated speci- 

 mens appear as early as April and as late as 

 the end of June or even later. The early part 

 of May this season, up to the 19th, was cold 

 and stormy, frost almost every night and vege- 

 tation was too weeks late. On the llth and 12th 

 the temperature suddenly changed to almost 

 summer heat, which brought out a fair rise of 

 Shad-fly. Then followed a sudden decline in 

 temperature to bitter cold. We had been fish- 

 246 



