FLY FISHING FOR TROUT AND GRAYLING. 289 
families of flies to which the fly fisher’s imitations chiefly belong: 
(1) Ephemera, (2) Phryganea. The Ephemera include a great 
variety of species, from the May fly to the tiny Jenny Spinner. 
They have a long life in the water as larvee in the form of little 
green dragons, crawling about the roots of sedges and water 
weeds ; and a very short one as perfect insects, having their 
‘little day of sunny bliss,’ during which the sexes mingle and 
the females drop their ova on the stream. 
Under certain conditions of the weather they ‘hatch out’ 
from the larva state in prodigious numbers, leaving their empty 
skins, like insect ghosts, on rushes, flags, or waterside grass. I 
was once witness at Bray Weir early in July to a singular 
phenomenon in the shape of a countless swarm of ‘ Yellow 
Sallies.”’ They gathered over the Thames shortly before dusk, 
and formed a dense yellow cloud extending some 150 yards in 
length, 30 in breadth, and 3 in depth; only a slight undulating 
movement in the mass, and the restless flashing up of scale fish 
from below to secure the stragglers who dropped out of the 
ranks, showing that what I saw was a prodigy of insect life 
and not an atmospheric phenomenon. 
The artificial flies which represent the Ephemere are very 
various in size and colour ; but they are all alike in attempting 
to represent by the most delicate feathers—for the most part 
mottled—the gauzy wings of the natural insect. They are also 
alike in having three ‘ wisps’ behind--single strands of hair or 
feather—to imitate the delicate filaments at the tail of the 
natural fly, which seem designed to steady and regulate the up- 
and-down movements of the insect, especially in the act of 
dropping its eggs. The feathers most used in dressing flies of 
this family are those of the wild drake (dark brown, pale grey, 
or dyed yellow) ; of the starling, landrail, snipe, and dotterel. 
The Phryganee@ are a less numerous family, nor, as far as 
my own observation goes, do they ever appear on the water in 
such amazing swarms. They often, however, muster pretty 
strong, and certain species are continually ‘hatching out’ 
during a great part of the year from the bundles of vegetable 
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