THE FLY-FISHER'S ENTOMOLOGY WITH COLOURED REPRESENTATIONS OF TROUT AND GRAYLING FISHING BY ALFRED RONALDS With Twenty Coloured Plates NINTH EDITION .... 'Devouring Ephemerals! Can you not suffer the poor insects to sport out their day? LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. GL 37 X 6 3 4 PREFACE. IN the Midland Counties, and especially in Derbyshire, the "Fly-Fisher's Entomology" has long been considered an authority; and as the Derbyshire waters have of late years risen in the esteem of the fly-fishers, a new and more complete Edition of the work has been rendered indispensable. In these counties, the streams, though preserved, are thrown open by the liberality of the proprietors; and here the angler, availing himself of the facilities of the rail, may be found enjoying his holiday at many a pleasant country inn, in the county of the Dove, the Wye, and the Derwent. The Blithe, a sweet trout-stream in Staffordshire, close to Cresswell Station, was the scene of Ronalds' early experience; on the little bridge, close to the present Station, stood his observatory (p. 5); and though his residence, at a later period in Wales, extended his knowledge of the art, and enabled him to adapt his instructions to the different waters in which he fished, yet the Midland streams are still the proper home of his observations that Dove, where Cotton erst hung up the thick-bodied fly of more southern counties, “in his window, to laugh at." The Author of the present work trusts that it may be considered and judged of as the labour, or rather the amusement, of an amateur, whose chief object has been to facilitate, to the tyro in the art, the making and choice of artificial flies, on a plan of elucidation derived from personal experi ence. Having himself sorely felt the inadequacy of mere verbal instructions to enable him to imitate the natural fly correctly, or even approximately, and the little utility of graphical illustrations unaccompanied by the principal requisite-colour, he has been induced to paint both the natural and |