48 A SCOTTISH FLY-FISHER 



so obviously without a basis in experience. We should 

 learn, for instance, why the employment of the Soldier 

 Palmer, a fly accepted freely by the trout in May, is 

 properly restricted to July, and why the Zulu, whose 



charm is exercised successfully 

 the season through, should be 

 withdrawn from the seclusion 

 which the wallet grants, only 

 when, in April and again in 

 August, circumstances justify 

 its liberation. 

 The statement that the trout refuse the imitation of 

 a fly which is out of season is not, on the face of it, 

 incredible, but to affirm that he makes seasonal dis- 

 tinctions among lures the product entirely of human 

 ingenuity, is absurd. Nor is the fly in season neces- 

 sarily that which the trout prefers ; it is conceivable 

 that there are others for which he has a greater liking, 

 and that when he rejects the feathered image of the 

 fly which is or might be up, in favour of another of a 

 different character, it is because he sees in the latter 

 something more pleasing to his taste. 



One gathers from the literature of angling that its 

 colour is the only feature of the lure with which the 

 angler has occasion to concern himself ; the trout fails 



