TEOUT FLIES. 77 



mistletoe thrush. I cannot decide as to which of 

 all these is the best. Let the body of both flies be 

 made of the shortest of the water-rat fur, that which 

 grows nearest the belly, and has a yellowish grey 

 lustre on the surface ; this mix up with an equal 

 proportion of yellow worsted wool, or mohair (dyed 

 pig's wool is preferable, when it can be got fine 

 enough) well teased together. With this make your 

 fly, body and wings, fully as large, upon the whole, 

 as the fly you imitate (in earliest spring I sometimes 

 use No. 8), and fish on with this pair, using no 

 variation whatever, from early spring down to the 

 setting in of fine weather, about the end of April. 

 Then the fly of which this is the imitation is suc- 

 ceeded by one of a size smaller, or rather more 

 slender, and the least shade lighter in colour of body 

 and transparency of wing. In England the first 

 of these flies is called the March Brown, the second 

 the Pale Yellow Dun. 



In ordinary seasons, this last fly comes up about 

 the end of April, or beginning of May, and con- 

 tinues for a month or more in main request, making 

 still a secondary fly all down the summer ; and 

 when it comes first on it is the chief object of trout, 

 in preference to the former fly, of which a few are 

 still seen straggling on the surface. My usual irnita- 



