XVI. 
BPHEMERA 
Or all nature’s beautiful objects submitted to 
the plyer of the contemplative art, perhaps 
none are so surpassingly beautiful, or have more 
exquisite form and colour than the gauzy-winged 
flies which afford food to the pink-spotted trout. 
Every one of the angler’s months— from dry 
March to sodden October—brings its own flies, 
all more or less delectable to the denizens of 
the streams. We say ‘“ more or less” because 
the fisherman regulates his likes and dislikes 
by those of the trout, and praises most the fly 
that the fishes have already passed their verdict 
upon. Here, for instance, is the black alder. 
‘‘What shall be said of this queen of flies? O, 
thou beloved member of the brute creation! 
Songs have been written in praise of thee ; statues 
would ere now have been erected to thee had 
that haunchback, and those flabby wings of thine, 
been ‘susceptible of artistic treatment.’ But ugly 
