278 



THE CANADIAN SPORTSMAN AND NATURALIST. 



the bar! of the " governour's " body each 

 retain a number of imprisoned air bubbles ; 

 hence the similarity of effects, and hence, too, 

 the value of harl as a " body." 



But, indeed, with all that ingenuity can de- 

 vise, the artificial fly is but a poor imitation 

 of its living prototype. And hence the much- 

 vexed question. Do fish take a specific artifi- 

 cial fly for the specific natural fly that it is 

 intended to lepresent! Now, salmon and sea 

 trout flies cannot possibly be mistaken for any 

 natural insects, inasmuch as there is nothing 

 in nature which they resemble. It has been 

 suggested th t the gaudj T salmon fly may be 

 mistaken for some species of dragon fly. But, 

 in the first place, dragon flies are not accus- 

 tomed to career up stream eight inches or a 

 foot below the surface of tire water, which is 

 the method of working the fly in salmon-fish- 

 ing; and secondly, neither salmon nor salmon 

 trout feed on dragon flies. It must, therefore, 

 be something in the color which allures them, 

 and not any similarity to a familiar object of 

 food. It is more doubtful whether the same 

 explanation holds good for trout and ether fish. 

 In the case of a distinctive fly, like the mayfly, 

 the imitation must be taken for the real fly. 

 So, too, when fish will rise only to an imita- 

 tion of the fly on the water. Sometimes all 

 depends on successfully imitating this, but at 

 others the fish seem to prefer a different fly, 

 or, what is stranger still a fancy fly. And this 

 readmits the old element of perplexity. There 

 are various kinds of fancy flies, but besides 

 these many flies, originally intended as imita- 

 tions, have become, by alterations in their 

 size, fancy flies for all intents and purposes. 

 The " red palmer" is a good instance of this. 

 Originally intended to represent the " wooly 

 bear," a caterpillar at least two inches long, 

 the fly, as now tied, rarely exceeds f- of an inch 

 in length and is usually much smaller. Yet 

 is hardly a more eucces-sful fly, though what 

 it is taken for is still a mystery. The trout of 

 the Scotch lochs again greatly prefer fancy to 

 natural flies. There is plenty of the latter on 

 these waters, but the artificial flies alway used 

 are entirely fancy creations. Again, the perch, 

 which does not feed on natural Hies at all, will 

 often rise. boldly to a large artificial. Thus it 

 seems that if fish in some cases certainty 

 regard the artificial fly as an imitation of 

 a familiar insect, in other they certainly do 

 nothiug of the kind, and are prompted to rise 

 to it either with the idea that though strange 

 to them, it is probably good to eat, or from 



mere curiosity, or possibly under some sort of 

 fascination akin to that which attracts moths, 

 birds, and indeed fish also, to a light. The 

 best way of presenting flies to the fish is a much 

 less perplexing question : but even in this 

 matter piscine tastes display some curious 

 variations. In certain rivers, such as the 

 Wandle, the fly must be kept dry, but in most 

 streams it answer better when slightly sub- 

 merged. This, indeed, might be expected. 

 Since it is impossible to make a close estima- 

 tion of a living fly, there is a better chan e of 

 deceiving the fish by presenting the bait to 

 them as a drowned fly washed down by the 

 current. It should be remembered also that 

 the actual insects, when so carried down, pre- 

 sent anything but a tidy appearance, and con- 

 sequently that an old and touzled fly will often 

 succeed where a pick-and-span specimen has 

 utterly failed. 



ANIMALS THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED 



IN RECENT TIMES. 



In examining a collection of fossils, where 

 the sand of limestones are almost entirely 

 made up of organic remains, the most natural 

 impression conveyed is that their extinction 

 has been the result of a mighty cataclysm, 

 some unexpected throb of nature that produced 

 at one fell swoop the destruction of the con- 

 tinental fauna, but investigation shows the 

 reverse to be the case. When extinction is not 

 produced by man, it is the outcome of certain 

 natural causes, reached only through long eras 

 of time. Ethnologists have shown beyond a 

 doubt that early man lived contemporaneously 

 with many huge forms that are now extinct. 

 Within a very few years some of these animals 

 have passed away. One of the most interest- 

 ing of recent cases is that ot the great ank or 

 Alc.a impennis. The skins or bones are so 

 rare that each individual has its history and 

 price ; the latter might be quoted at $1000 or 

 more, as only 60 specimens are known in the 

 world. No living specimen has been obtained 

 for 40 years. In 1869 the Museum of Natural 

 History at Central Park purchased one in 

 London for $750, and the bird and egg, both 

 fine specimens, can be seen there. The auk 

 was about three feet in bight, its wings only 

 three or four inches long. It was an in Habi- 

 tant of the very highest latitudes, and at one 

 time extremely common in the Arctic seas. 

 The ancient shell heaps on the Atlantic coast 

 shows abundant remains of this bird as far 



