150 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



accidentally swallowing fish-hooks. Within my knowledge, 

 both waterhens and cats have been caught in this manner. 

 Ducks are the constant victims of their incautious rapacity, 

 and barn-door fowls have not unfrequently been tempted 

 to destruction by the allurements of a baited minnow or 

 seductive " green drake." An instance of the latter is 

 mentioned by Mr. "Wright : — A gentleman fishing with 

 May-flies in the river Wye, went into an inn on the road- 

 side, leaving his rod in the portico, where a fine white 

 cock took a fancy to the fly, and became hooked in the soft 

 part of the beak. Feeling the hook, the intruder prepared 

 to beat a hasty retreat, and in so doing pulled down the 

 rod, with which he Avas running away in great alarm ; but 

 the angler, hearing the noise, sallied forth, gave chase, 

 and regained his departing paraphernalia, when the cock 

 mounted into the air, and was with some difficulty brought 

 down and secured. 



A correspondent of the ' Field ^ newspaper, writing 

 under the signature of a " Coquet-sider," relates another 

 curious capture, in which a Water- Wagtail was the 

 victim. " I was fishing," says this gentleman, " in the 

 Coquet, in 1861, with a Francis-fly, obtained from Mr. 



(dressed on abominably thick gut — this by the way), 



when, in making a longish cast, a Wagtail swooped and 

 took the Francis. It attempted to soar into the air, but 

 the weight of the line soon exhausted its strength, and after 

 playing it a short time, with a sudden jerk I released my in- 

 teresting visitor. Considering the way in which Mr. Francis 



