16 THE WAY OF A TROUT WITH A FLY 



but what does he care ? Take the Dotterel dun. This 

 is a hackled imitation of a light yellow-legged dun. The 

 dotterel hackle is a brownish dun feather with yellow 

 tips to the points of the fibres. The dun colour represents 

 the wings, the yellow tips the legs. But does the trout 

 resent being offered a fly with yellow legs at the tips of 

 his wings, and these wings spread mopwise all round his 

 body ? If he does resent it, the popularity — the well- 

 deserved popularity — of the Dotterel dun is hard to account 

 for. Making every allowance for some disarrangement of 

 toilet in a natural fly which has become submerged or 

 caught by the current, can we say that it ever has its 

 wings starred all round its head or shoulders in a pal- 

 pitating mop ? Then the honey-dun hen hackle. This is 

 the same thing again. And we know that the honey-dun 

 hen feathers are among the trout- fly dresser's most cherished 

 treasures. 



Let us turn to the Iron-blue dun. The natural insect has 

 lead-coloured wings and red feet, and the artificial may 

 be dressed either winged or hackled. If hackled, a dark 

 blue dun feather with copper-red points is an admirable 

 feather to use. But the trout does not mind a bit that 

 your Iron-blue dun has a mop of blue wing all round its 

 head, with a little red foot at the end of each fibre. It 

 is a commonplace of fly dressing that, in translating a 

 winged pattern into its hackled correlative, you select a 

 hackle combining as far as possible the colour of wings 

 and legs, and, so long as you keep the colours, their relative 

 position is of little consequence. As an instance, let me 

 quote the case of the Lead- winged (i.e., starling- winged) 

 Coachman and the Little Chap. Each has a peacock herl 

 body. The dun of the starling wings in the Coachman is 

 reproduced by the dun centre of the hackle of the Little 

 Chap, and the red hackle of the Coachman by the red points 



