THE PRINCIPAL TROUT FLIES 139 



of the ordinary succession of flies which usually throng the 

 water in the generality of rivers, you need not venture upon 

 the uncertain realms of fancy at all you may go anywhere, 

 east, west, north or south, and never trouble a professional 

 to tell you what is on his water, or what will kill best, for you 

 will know what flies should be in season, and if you have any 

 doubt, a glance will tell you. 



The following list is partly the result of my own experience, 

 and partly that of others. The flies fed on by trout have 

 been the same from all ages, unless we pin our faith on The 

 Vestiges of Creation, and therefore one has nothing to do 

 but to take them from those who have gone before, selecting 

 the best favoured by the fish, and leaving the worst, and to 

 make such suggestions on dressing them, etc., as experience 

 may dictate. 



The principal flies which, as I have said, the angler relies 

 upon, are those born of the water. The most useful of these 

 are divided into two great orders, viz. the Neuroptera, or 

 nerve-winged (from vcvpov, a nerve, and -jnepov, a wing 

 these are the flies which have smooth wings, veined to and 

 fro like the drakes, the stone and the alder flies), and the 

 Trichoptera, or hairy-winged (from 6pl, gen. rptxw, hair, 

 and Trre/ooV, a wing).* Among these are our sand flies, cinna- 

 mons, mushroom flies, silver horns, etc. There is an enormous 

 variety of these flies, something like two hundred British 

 species having been discovered. The wings are soft, and 

 somewhat in appearance like those of moths. They are not 

 upright, like those of the drakes and duns, nor flat like those 

 of the stone and willow flies, but come up to an angle, like 

 the roof of a house somewhat ; as it is termed, they are 

 deflected. These two orders are subdivided. Among the 

 Neuroptera are the Ephemeridae, as the May flies, duns, and 

 spinners ; the Perlidae, as the stone and willow flies ; and 

 the Sialidae, of which we have but one sample, though that 

 is a host in itself, viz. the alder fly. The Trichoptera, used for 

 the most part, include only the family of Phryganidae, if we 

 except the silver horns. 



The other orders in most use by the fly-fisher are, the 

 Coleoptera, or sheath-winged (from /coXeo?, a sheath), insects 

 having two pairs of wings, the upper of which are hard and 

 horny, and are called elytra, and form the sheath for the 



* In modern classification the Trichaptera are placed as a family of the 

 order Neuroptera, ED. 



