APRIL. 35 
The checkwing varies from this description, as will be 
seen afterwards, for she continues into October; in the 
warm months she nearly equals in size the March brown, 
and is as fine and bulky a fly. The principal distinction is 
the clouded wing of the March brown, which the pheasant’s 
feather has long represented, and the partridge brown for 
the trellised wings of the checkwing. From time out of 
mind they have been great favorites with the craft-—yclept 
“hare’s ear and yellow.” 
30TH.— RED DRAKE (or great red spinner).7—Size of 
checkwing but smarter ; long fore legs, long whisks ; wings 
glassy and transparent, crossed into squares, sparkling with 
red reflections ; body, a red or ambry dim transparency, 
tinged darker on the upper parts and along the sides. 
Legs and whisks a red dim transparency ; eyes round and 
goggling or cased. Are out in groups in the evenings. 
Red cock’s hackle with orange silk. 
31sT.— BLACK SPINNER (or gnat).—Full length, short of 
a quarter; length, one-eighth to one-eighth and one-six- 
teenth ; round thick shoulders; body tapering to a point, 
of a dark brown leady or black color. Some shew faint 
reflections in the sun. Wings transparent, of a slight brown 
or neutral tinge. 
’ Black silk and starling’s small feather. This little aquatic 
comes out of the water the beginning of this month, and 
increases daily to immense numbers ; it is often the leading 
favorite of the fish, and as often the pest of the flyfisher. 
They are out all day, mustering exceedingly numerous in 
the evenings until dusk, and continue through summer. 
(21) “Great Spinner” of Jackson, ‘‘Great Red Spinner” or “ Light Mackerel ’” 
of Ronalds; this is the imago of the ‘March Brown,” and is a fine, large, showy 
looking fiy, but owing to the distance that it flies above the surface of the water does 
not often become food for the fish, at least I have never found the artificial kill nearly 
so well as the lesser spinner of the “‘ Blue Dun,” or the corresponding transformation 
of the “ Yellow Dun.” 
