MAY. 53 
Escaped these dangers, the green drake reposes under the 
leaves of trees and plants, in her green garb, which is the 
covering nature has bstowed upon her to protect her tender 
frame on its first encounter with the air and its changes. 
She soon grows strong and splits open her green covering, 
at the shoulders, in the same way as she did the creeper 
case, and casts it off, and probably shortly after a second, 
which clears away the green, and she becomes the grey 
drake. 
The green drake is fished both natural and artificial ; 
and at the time she is hatching is as peerless for trout, in 
the sunshine, as the stone fly is in the shade. The large 
trout feed deliberately on them both ; they are cotemporary 
and rule by turns the empire of the stream. The glories 
of the stone fly are chiefly in the dusk of night and early 
morn, when she hath no compeer. The green drake holds 
her court in the full blaze of day, in undisputed majesty 
queen of the streams, which, in clear water, renders her less 
successful to the angler, for the quick eye of the trout catches 
everything that flits within its vision—the form of the 
fisherman—the wave of his rod—or the appendages to the 
falling fly, will rouse his fears and scare him from his food; 
but on sunny days and dark waters (when the green drakes 
are hatching) every trout is on the watch—hovering in the 
current like a kite in the air—wheeling from side to side to 
snap the passing prey; and so intent upon it is he, that the 
imperial Empress may trot over their heads unnoticed. Itis 
then the natural fly fills the craftsman’s pannier, and the trout 
she kills are in their full prime and splendour. The green 
drake is plentiful in all the streams of Ripon—the mill 
races and dams, which in summer are well stocked with 
trout, abound with them—particularly above Bishopton 
mill, where the trout are the finest in the neighbourhood, 
when feeding on the green drake. She is tackled and fished 
natural, similar to the stone fly, sometimes two on the hook, 
