To
the Hydropsyches (species montana? or variegata? of Pictet) belongs
that curious little Welsh fly, known in Snowdon by the name of the
Gwynnant, whose tesselated wing is best imitated by brown mallard
feather, and who so swarms in the lower lakes of Snowdon, that it is
often necessary to use three of them on the line at once, all other
flies being useless. It is perhaps the abundance of these tesselated
Hydropsyches which makes the mallard wing the most useful in mountain
districts, as the abundance of the fawn and grey Phryganidae in the
south of England makes the woodcock wing justly the favourite. The
Rhyacophiles, on the other hand, are mostly of a shining soot-grey,
or almost black. These may be seen buzzing in hundreds over the
pools on a wet evening, and with them the sooty Mystacides, called
silverhorns in Scotland, from their antennae, which are of
preposterous length, and ringed prettily enough with black and white.
These delicate fairies make moveable cases, or rather pipes, of the
finest sand, generally curved, and resembling in shape the Dentalium
shell.
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