22 



one or other of them will do execution, and there is 

 seldom a day that trout do not rise at some time or 

 other in it, unless the water be too thick for them to 

 see the fly. As I am writing for the average fly- 

 fisher, who need not waste the time or take the 

 trouble to make his own flies, I will not attempt to 

 describe the manner of making them, believing that 

 it is much better to visit a good tackle shop and 

 get what is required ; yet I think it desirable to show 

 of what materials they should be composed, in order 

 that he may know what are the most killing sorts, 

 and how to distinguish them in ordering. 



FEBRUARY AND MARCH. 



1. The Red Spinner. Body, brown silk, ribbed 

 with fine gold twist ; tail, two fibres of a red cock's 

 hackle ; wings, of some transparent brown feather. 



2. March Brown, or Brown Drake. This, like the 

 other drakes, is a great favourite with trout in its 

 season, which is during March and April, and it may 

 also be used in the autumn. Body, orange-coloured 

 silk or deep straw colour, on which wind fur from a 

 hare's poll ; legs, a honey-dun hackle ; wings, to 

 stand erect, of the top of the light or inner fibres of 

 the feather of the hen pheasant's wing; tail, two 

 fibres of the same feather. Rib with gold twist for 

 your tail fly, and let the droppers be without any 

 twist. 



The above is " Ephemera's " way of making it, 

 but Mr. Ronalds says : " Body, fur of the hare's face 

 ribbed over with olive silk and tied with brown silk ; 

 tail, two strands of a partridge's feather; wings, 



