ON CREEPERS. 
ALL the flies of the browns, drakes, and dun classes, are 
bred in the water, from eggs or spawn laid on its surface 
by the females. These eggs or spawn become animated and 
hatch the young insects, which grow in the water the same 
as fish, in the same shape and to the full size of the bodies 
of their parent flies, when they are called creepers. These 
creepers are cased and sheathed in a thin waterproof skin, 
which protects and fits them for the occupation of the water 
until they are matured for a change ; the skin is then split 
open at the shoulders, and the fly is hatched, leaving the 
empty creeper skin behind, as a bird does its shell. 
A description of the creepers of two or three species of 
the flies of each of these classes, may suffice to give a know- 
ledge of the whole, sufficient for the purposes of the flyfisher. 
CREEPERS OF THE BROWNS CLASS. 
The females of this class may be frequently seen on the 
tops of posts and rails, battlements of bridges, etc., exuding 
their eggs as they stand, which adhere to their bodies on 
the first and second joint of the belly, and which they flap 
off on to the water with their wings. The eggs of different 
species vary in color. The creepers resemble, in shape and 
construction, and also in sizes and colors, the bodies, legs, 
etc., of their parent flies. Their creeper skins are thicker 
than those of the drakes and duns, and most of them beauti- 
fully marked and lined with dark brown on the top of the 
head, shoulders, and down the back. They are very active, 
and run as quick in the water as the flies do upon land, until 
