THE FLY 81 



The fly, properly so called, is little more than a bonne 

 bouche to the trout ; it forms but a trifling percentage 

 of his fare. Were he dependent for his livelihood on 

 the scraps he gathers from the surface, he would never 

 have acquired his name for lustiness. He finds his 

 living not on, but 

 in, the water, and 

 the greater portion 

 of his food consists 

 of the larvai and the 

 nymphae of a wide 



variety of insects belonging to many species, genera, 

 and orders ; of beetles and molluscs and small crusta- 

 ceans ; of minnows and other fish ; of, in short, every- 

 thing edible — even snakes — and within the compass of 

 his gullet. If the submerged fly suggests to him any- 

 thing specific, it is one of the aquatic forms of life on 

 which he habitually feeds. These, at least, are the 

 objects he is accustomed to see in the situation occupied 

 by the angler's artifice, and it is these the wet-fly 

 fisherman should seek to simulate. If he would be 

 faithful in his adherence to nature's methods, he should 

 discard his winged flies and confine himself exclusively 

 to the use of hackles. The hackle may not provide him 

 with a "living image" of any of the minute creatures 



