152 FLY FISHING FOE TROUT. 



Great Dun, which is a body of dun bear's hair, 

 and wings of grey mallard taken from near the 

 tail. That is an improvement on the Treatise 

 but still far from good. Chetham takes us 

 further ; he dressed his Blue Dun with the down 

 of a water mouse and the blue dun of an old 

 fox mixed together spun on ash-coloured silk, 

 and wings of a starling's quill feather. That 

 is getting on, and approaching the old mole's 

 fur Blue Dun of my youth. Bowlker dressed it 

 with a body of yellow mohair and blue fur of 

 a fox mixed, a blue cock's hackle, and blue duck 

 or starling wings. That dressing survives till 

 to-day, if the duck wing as an alternative be 

 dropped. Francis dressed it almost identi- 

 cally. In later years it was and still is dressed 

 with mole or rat's fur body and a snipe wing, 

 and these are the materials given in the late 

 Mr. Tod's Wet Fly Fishing, and still later by 

 Mr. Skues in Minor Tactics. 



The progress of this fly is of extraordinary 

 interest. It starts with a black wool body, 

 dark mallard wings and possibly a jay's blue 

 feather as hackle. This dressing is too dark 

 altogether in body and wing. Cotton lightens 

 both, and gives a fairly good fly, and Chetham 

 a still better one. His Blue Dun has no hackle 

 it is true, but its rough body of fox fur could 

 easily be picked out, and except for this it is 

 almost as it now exists. But there were one or 

 two improvements, the snipe wing, which I 

 think is better than the starling for the sunk 



