Old Flies in New Dresses. By Charles Edward Walker. (Lawrence
and Bullen. 7s. 6d.)—To be a successful angler, and especially to kill fish by methods hitherto untried, where other men have failed, is apt to raise a murmur of "Poaching dodges !" from less successful brethren of the gentle craft,— which is not a craft that excludes malice and envy. From this *fate Mr. Walker does not seem to have been exempt ; though it is hard to say why any one is to arrogate to himself the right of decreeing that such and such an imitation of a natural lure is sportsmanlike, while another is the reverse ; the more so, as in this instance the new-fangled method is the result not only of a fisherman's practical experience but of a naturalist's careful observation. The admirable plates in the book explain how, by tying trout-flies in the time-honoured way, we successfully imitate but one family, the Ephemeridm ; and that to copy those insects, which, falling from the overhanging vegetation, be it tree or sedge, form the choicest food of the trout of Southern streams, we oujiht to set the wings on very differently. It would be an experiment worth trying to use an imitation of the Cerise, as described by Mr. Walker, on lakes where, owing to much bottom feeding, trout rise shyly, and are in the habit of taking the fly under the water; but the author's directions as to playing the fly should be carefully studied.
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