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Bustard. - This bird belongs to the turkey tribe, and at one time coursing it with dogs was not an uncommon sport.   It is, however, now very rare in England. There is an Indian variety.  Both are largely used for salmon fly dressing.  The smaller hackles of the latter are occasionally used for fronting May Flies, and the celebrated North country pattern, the Professor, is winged with slips of some of the smaller feathers of this bird.  March Browns, Alders and Sedges, are occasionally winged in like manner.  The feathers are beautiful, but very dry in texture, and very tender.

 

*Canadian Wood Duck. - The breast feathers of this bird are considered very valuable for May Fly wings.

They are, however, lacking in cohesion and therefore not very suitable for floating May Flies, though making good hackled patterns.  The separate fibres of these feathers may be used for whisks.  The barred feathers of the breast are of service for salmon flies.  These feathers are only to be had through the dealers.

 

Capercailzie. (Capercaillie, Capercally, Cock of the Woods, Cock of the Mountain, Wood Grouse, Great grouse). - St. John Dick, in “Flies and Fly Fishing” (1873), gives the wing of hen capercailzie as the best feather for March Brown.  It would also do for Black Alders.

 

Canary. - Most of the birds body feathers are too tender for use, but the wing and the tail might perhaps be used for the Yellow Sally.

 

*Chaffinch (Spink, Pink, Twink, Skelly, Shilfa &c.). - This bird affords the fly dresser only one important service. The quill stripped from the primaries and the secondaries and tail feathers forms the body  of

Mr. H. S. Hall’s pike-scale pattern of the Black Gnat.  There are one or two feathers about the roots of the tail which would serve as Blue Dun hackles, but in general the hackles of the bird are far too tender for practical purposes. The wing feathers , moreover, are too delicate for winging purposes, and are, indeed, too short in the fibre for any but the tiniest of flies.

 

Chough (Cornish Chough, Cornish Daw, Red-legged Daw, Cliff Daw, &c.) - The writer is sure he has seen this bird quoted by some author, but cannot now trace it.

 

Church Owl. - See Owl, Barn.

Cliff Daw. - See Chough.

Cole Goose. - See Cormorant.

Common Bunting. See Bunting, Corn.

 

*Condor. - The pinion and tail feathers of this bird yield quills of unequalled strength and toughness, and capable of taking dye well.  Each fibre is provided with a close flue all down is length, which can indeed be pulled off in one piece if carefully handled, but cannot, without much labour and difficulty, be stripped in the way a peacock’s quill can be, by means of drawing it between the finger and thumbnail.  Each feather yields quills of a variety of colours.  They can be had from white, through brown dun, to a dark ashy grey.

Each quill has a fine dark stripe down one margin, which has the effect of imitating the sections in the bodies of flies.  The feather is somewhat difficult to procure to procure, as the bird is an inhabitant of the Andes.