287 
CADDIS-WORMS AND THEIR METAMORPHOSES. 
By Rey. W. Houghton, M.A., F.L.S. 
I T is a pleasant morning in the month of July, the wind is 
in the south-west, warm, and gentle, the sun is nicely over- 
cast, and everything betokens good sport at our trout-stream. 
Numerous flies well-known to the angler-naturalist are on the 
wing ; here we see the merry dance of some of the smaller 
kinds of E'phemeridce, such as Baetis and Cloeon^ now ascending 
with head erect, now sinking gracefully down with their two 
extended thread-like appendages at the end of the tail ; now 
and then a water-moth (Phryganea) flits across with its charac- 
teristic zig-zag mode of flight, so like that of a butterfly, and 
lights on some sedge or alder fringing the river side. How 
delightful it is to wander along the bank of a river abounding 
in trout, and how pleasant the sensation of a good fish tugging 
and leaping for his life ! And even if the fish won’t rise, and 
you try fly after fly in vain, still there is something indescribably 
charming on the bank of the rippling stream — 
Where may we find the music like the music of the stream ? 
What diamond like the glances of its ever-changing gleam ? 
What couch so soft as mossy banks, where, through the noontide hours. 
Our dreamy heads are pillowed on a hundred simple flowers ? 
While through the crystal stream beneath we mark the fishes glide 
To the sport that we court by the gentle river side. 
If the fish will not rise, there is still plenty to observe; 
underneath the stones of the brook lie concealed various larval 
and nymphal forms of insect life. Let us turn over some 
stones and catch a few of them. Here we see a small worm- 
like form, with strong head and jaws, six feet, and seven pairs 
of branchial filaments attached to the segments of the body ; 
this is the larva of the Alder or Orl-fly of the angler {Sialis 
lutrarius). The perfect insect deposited its eggs in May and 
June, on the aquatic plants near the water’s edge ; these, when 
hatched, dropped into the water, and the little things we see 
are this year’s tender larvae. Now we find various other larvae, 
X 2 
