THE FLY 



67 



should it chance to stray his way. We know that he 

 will take a lure resembling, to the human eye at least, 

 nothing he has ever seen before ; the fancy fly, though 

 bearing a general resemblance to an insect, is unlike 

 anything specific, yet it is frequently accepted by the 

 trout without suspicion ; and the artificial May-fly is 

 sometimes highly successful where its prototype is quite 

 unknown. Though the Coch-y-Bondhu bears a Welsh 

 name, the little beetle in the likeness of which it is sup- 

 posed to be dressed is not confined to the Principality. 

 It is common, much too common, to the entire country. 

 Though local in its distri- 

 bution, it is found on many 

 waters, but even if it were 

 not, its imitation is so little 

 life-like that it probably re- 

 sembles, just as closely, 

 something else familiar to 

 the fish and for which it is 

 mistaken. That, at any 

 rate, is the ingenious hypo- 

 thesis by which Mr. Francis 

 Francis explains away the 

 success of the artificial fly 

 before the advent of the 



