298 GAME FISH OF NORTH AMERICA. 



the surface of the earth eleven months of every year, comes crawl- 

 ing, creeping out of the ground on warm June mornings appareled 

 ■n new livery. After resting awhile on low herbage, all, as if 

 guided by one impulse, fly to the nearest stream. We have kept 

 these insects for weeks in confinement, and they would neither eat 

 nor drink. But every morning for hours they congregate over 

 streams ; keeping time with the ripple of the water, they hold a 

 May dance ; darting hither and thither, occasionally touching the 

 water to go down with the current, or else down the throat of a 

 fish. When these bright creatures are holding high carnival 

 above, the trout positively refuse other enticement. The larvse of 

 moths is a favorite fish food, and consequently successful bait. 

 Hibernating larvas are drawn from their retreats in warm spring 

 days, and continue the pilgrimage they commenced the previous 

 fall. In their wild joumeyings on and on before spinning the 

 pupa shroud, they fall victims in attempting to cross streams. 

 Hairy caterpillars feeding on the trees are blown off by the winds, 

 or their silken thread is broken, as they hang under the leaves in 

 shelter from the rain. Imitations of these known to the Ameri- 

 can by the familiar term of hackles, and to the accurate inhabitant 

 of the British Isles by the correct name of palmers, are to be used 

 after winds or during rain storms ; also that compromise between 

 larvas and image known as the hackle fly. Bristling with feet 

 its entire length, and graced with a pair of wings, it offers a double 

 attraction to the fish. No bait has ever been used that has given 

 the general satisfaction of this anomaly. To look at it with 

 the eye of a naturalist one doubts the wit or wisdom of the fish 

 that takes it, and concludes there are comparative degrees of sane- 

 ness beneath the ripple of the wave. It is a common remark that 

 fish will not 'bite' before rain. Some have accounted for it bj 

 bringing forward that common scapegoat for all unexplainable 

 phenomena, electricity. I can't understand why fish should dread 

 a sprinkling of rain drops. The reason probably is, that their food 

 is never offered at such times. The natural instinct of the insect 

 forbids their leaving the water or flying abroad if rain is threaten- 

 ing. The spiracles or breathing pores are situated on the outside 

 of tlie body near the insertion of the wings. They are soon clogged 

 and closed up by the water, and the down washed from theit 



