100 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART I. 



feather ; and grounds of such wool and crewel as will 

 make the grasshopper. And note, that usually the small- 

 est flies are the best ; and note also, that the light fly 

 does usually make most sport in a dark day, and the 

 darkest and least fly in a bright or clear day : and lastly 

 note, that you are to repair upon any occasion to your 

 magazine-bag ; and upon any occasion, vary and make 

 them lighter or sadder, according to your fancy, or the 

 day. 



And now I shall tell you, that the fishing with a 

 NATURAL-FLY is excellent, and affords much pleasure. 

 They may be found thus : the May-fly, usually in and 

 about that month, near to the river side, especially against 

 rain: the Oak -fly, on the butt or body of an oak or ash, 

 from the beginning of May to the end of August; it is a 

 brownish fly and easy to be found, and stands usually 

 with his head downward, that is to say, towards the 

 root of the tree: 1 the small black-fly, or Hawthorn-fly > 



The Oak-fly it good, \f it have a brown wing. 

 So it the gras$hopper, that in July doth sing .- 

 With a gretn body make him, on a middlc-tiz'd hook, 

 But when you have catcht ftih, then play the good cook. 

 Compare Once more, my good brother, I'll speak in thy ear- 

 this with Ho f t rcj co,,',, md bear's wool, to float bett appear.- 

 SSiiSl And* doth your fur. \f rightly it fall : 

 WalioSr But ****' remember, Make two, and make .11.* 

 Preface. A tpecimen of Mr. Barker'* poetry f 



(1) The Oak-fly it known alto by the names of the Ash-fly and the Woodcock. 

 fly; and in Shropshire it it called the cannon or Downhill-fly. Bowlker, in 

 hit Art of Angling, page 63, tays : " Thit fly, as I have lately been informed 

 br a gentleman of veracity, is bred in those little ball* which grow on the boughs 

 of large oaks, commonly called oak-apples; which he accidentally discovered, 

 by opening several of these balls which had been gathered in the winter, and 

 brought into the house; in each of which was found the cannon-fly, some of which 

 being enlivened by the warnith of the room immediately took flight, and fixed in 

 the window with the head downwards, the position they observe on the trees." 

 This discovery, by which the formation of galls is accounted for, as well as 

 the substances above-mentioned, was made long ago by the sagacious Malpighi, 

 who had with great diligence attended to the operations of insects in the act 

 of depositing their eggs ; and in his treatise De Gallis, he describes the bollow 

 instrument wherewith many flies are provided, with which they perforate the 

 tegument of leaves, fruits, or buds, and through the hollow of it inject their 

 eggs iolo the wounds which they have made, where, in process of time, they hatch 



