98 OLD FLIES IN NEW DRESSES 



I have come to the conclusion that a similar 

 dressing on different sized hooks will be 

 quite sufficient to deceive the unscientific 

 eye of the trout. This conclusion is cor- 

 roborated by the fact that I have several 

 times had an imitation Corixa seized by a 

 trout when it was sinking, and before I 

 began to draw it through the water, 

 which is, I take it, a fairly severe test as 

 to the accuracy of the imitation. Colonel 

 Walker and Mr. Herbert Ash have also 

 had the same thing happen to them when 

 fishing with my imitation Corixae. 



Corixse vary much in size, the largest 

 and one of the commonest species being the 

 Corixa geoffroyi, which is about half an inch 

 long. In all Corixse, the head is wide and 

 is attached but slightly to the body. It is 

 convex in front and concave behind, so as 

 to fit the end of the thorax, and is as wide 

 as the wings when folded and at rest. 

 These insects possess four wings, which 

 they frequently use, though they are some- 

 what clumsy in starting from the surface 

 of the water. I have sometimes, however, 

 seen them fly considerable distances. The 

 anterior wings resemble the wing-cases of 



