130 Selection and Arrangement of Feathers 



and size must have your best consideration. If you do 

 not wet your materials previous to making, always select 

 colours two or three shades lighter than the natural fly 

 to be imitated, because they turn darker in the water. 

 Feathers for the palest bloas or duns can hardly be too 

 light in colour, or fine in texture; consequently, for 

 dressing such flies those of the dotterel are invaluable. 



The artist must ever have before his eye the faultless 

 child of nature, and in imitating objects so small and 

 wonderfully formed, with their rare beauty of colour, he 

 will have no easy task, and, at best, will build but a 

 clumsy representation. Nevertheless, he must not be 

 disappointed if his early efforts are not so neat as he could 

 wish ; practice in every art makes perfect : that is, so far 

 as human perfection is attainable. Whether a hackled 

 or a winged fly is to be manufactured, it is essentially 

 requisite that the whole of the materials which are to 

 compose the imitation should be properly adjusted before 

 he commence operations. 



Always use the softest hackles for legs, those of a hen 

 are best, though the small head and neck feathers of the 

 starling, partridge, woodcock, corn-crake, &c. are softer 

 and answer better generally, used thinly. The hackles 

 should be stripped or divested of the soft downy fibres 

 which grow nearest the root, but, if the feather or hackle 

 be very small, it should only be turned back on both sides, 

 ready for twirling or twisting on the hook. If of larger 

 size, one side of the feather or hackle should be stripped 

 off also. (Plate vn. No. 12.) Now the side to be so 

 stripped off may be known by taking the feather between 

 your left finger and thumb, with the outside uppermost, 

 or towards you, then strip off the under side, as seen 

 in Plate vn. No. 12. Great care should be taken in 

 selecting the softest, brightest, and most transparent 

 feathers, in order that your imitation may approach as 



