CHAPTER I 



THE STUDY OF ENTOMOLOGY 



One of the charges most persistently brought against 

 modern dry-fly experts is that of overloading the 

 subject with a quantity of scientific detail which is 

 quite unnecessary for the fisherman at the river-bank. 

 They are charged with running the risk of burying the 

 sporting aspect of the question under a mass of 

 crack-jaw Greek and Latin scientific names. My 

 object here is to try to remove as many of these 

 charges as can by any stretch of imagination be 

 described as well-deserved. I therefore propose to 

 avoid using as far as possible the scientific names 

 of the insects referred to, but it is absolutely essen- 

 tial to set forth in this book the name appended by 

 modern entomologists to each fly at least once besides 

 the name which is given to it in the vernacular. 



It is the more necessary because unfortunately 

 different writers are prone to designate the same 

 insect by different and distinct names. Too many 

 of these write at great length, to try to prove that 

 the name by which one common British insect is 

 generally known should be applied to quite another 

 genus or species. As an example of this the 

 Welshman's button can be fairly cited. This name 



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