AMERICAN TROUT-STREAM INSECTS 



egg-sack on the water's surface, where it frequently 

 alights, or drops it while in flight; I should incline 

 to believe in the former. 



Both the fly and the egg-sack vary in size. 

 Large females measure fully half an inch from 

 head to end of egg-sack, and three-quarters of an 

 inch from head to tip of wings. Egg-sacks are one- 

 eighth of an inch, more or less. 



It will be seen that the egg-sack in trout diet is 

 a juicy morsel, equal in food quantity to, if not 

 greater than, many of the bodies of the small drakes 

 and duns. 



I have been more particular than usual in the 

 description of the shad-fly, because, while the great 

 flight is only two to four days, the insect rises 

 (more or less) during April, May and June; and 

 my artificial representations of both male and fe- 

 male have succeeded in rising trout in a surprising 

 degree in all those three months. 



In consequence of my absence from the river one 

 season during the annual rise (which was the small- 

 est on record) I had to wait a year to get the fe- 

 male with eggs. Then, however, I was most for- 

 tunate to witness what I may term a preliminary 

 rise — that is, a first great hatch, which generally 

 appears before the real or final hatch, when the vast 

 clouds float along over the river for a few hours 

 like a severe snowstorm reaching up both forks of 



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