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A book written by a lady for fly-fishermen, with the 
title, ‘‘ Favorite Flies,” soon to be issued from the press of 
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, will contain six plates 
of natural insects, including the different stages, of the 
May, caddis, stone and other flies. 
Last year I experimented with the May-fly, Ephemera, 
to discover if it could be transplanted to waters where it 
was unknown, and found that it would bear safely a 
journey of twenty-four hours, at least. This fly is called 
the dog-fly, and one of the species—there are more than 
two dozen—is called shad-fly, and they are the “drakes” 
of the fly-fishermen, the ‘“‘green drake” being the largest 
and best known Of the abundance of the May-fly it is 
said (Westwood's Introduction to the Classification of 
Insects), that in some pools of Europe it is customary to 
collect their dead bodies and use them for manure. The 
distinguished naturalist Reaumur gives this account 
(Introduction to Entomology : Kirby and Spruce): “‘ The 
myriads of Hphemere which filled the air over the cur- 
rent of the river, and over the bank on which I stood, 
are neither to be expressed nor conceived. When the 
snow falls with the largest flakes, and with the least in- 
terval between them, the air is not so full of them as 
that which surrounded us with Ephemera. Scarcely 
had I remained in one place a few minutes when the 
step on which I stood was quite concealed with a layer 
of them from two to four inches in depth.” This was 
near the River Marne, in France. 
I know personally of but few places where the flight 
of May-fly is in clouds, but in one place in New York it 
closely approaches, if it did not equal, that related by 
Reaumur. Ina flight of May-fly there will be discovered 
green, gray and purplish-black drakes. At first all are 
green, the female changing to gray and the male to 
purplish-black. Before my experiments with the May-fly 
on drakes, had extended beyond confining them to see 
how long they would live, the Azshzng Gazette, London, 
