158 FLY FISHING FOE TROUT. 



fur prevails to-day. The two improvements 

 which have been made on Chetham are the 

 substitution of tom tit's tail for wing, which 

 gives just the right purplish colour, and the 

 dun hackle. I am uncertain who first pitched 

 on tom tit's tail. Wade in 1861 in Halcyon 

 calls it the Little Blue Bloa and gives blue or 

 black cap's wing, and I suppose the blue cap is 

 the blue tit, and the black cap may be the tom 

 tit. Ronalds in his first edition gives 

 Bowlker's cormorant's feather, but as this is 

 hard to get the tips of two feathers from a 

 water hen's breast may be substituted; but in 

 his fifth edition in 1856 he gives as well the 

 upper end of the wing feather of a tom tit when 

 in full plumage. Francis mentions tom tit's 

 tail in 1867, though he attributes it to Wade, 

 which seems a mistake. So we must take off 

 our hat to the shade of that mighty fisher 

 himself. 



Stonefly. 



This fly has changed neither in name nor in 

 dressing. It is quite unmistakeable, a fat, 

 stupid, clumsy clown, better at running than 

 flying. The Treatise is as follows : 'The stone 

 fly, the body of black wool and yellow under the 

 wing and under the tail, and the wings of the 

 drake.' Markham as usual makes the dressing 

 more definite : the yellow under wings and tail 

 is to be made with yellow silk and the wings 

 are of a drake's down, not the quill feather. 



