Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/866

* FLY. 7 70 gether with the more robust families of March 3 ui-flies, bee-flies, robber-tlies, and their im- mediate allies. In the second section will fall rphua (lies, the bot-flies, Tachina flies, flesh- flies, house-flies (q.v.). dung-flies, fruit and gall Hies, and several groups of small forms closely related thereto. Fossil Flies. Fossil flies or Diptera are less common than are representatives of the Coleop- tera and Orthoptera, but more frequent than other insects. They appear first in the Liassic rocks, and continue through the Jurassic and Cretaceous ; but the remains in these formations are usually poorly preserved. The Tertiary Diptera represent nearly all the modern families; those of the Tipulidae (crane-flies), Bibionidse (March flies), and Syrphidse are most common. The amber of the Baltic region and the shales of Oeningen, Germany, are especially rich in dip- teran fossils, and those found in the amber are usually most beautifully preserved. In North America, the shale beds at Florissant, Colo., are the most prolific sources, and have yielded more than 1500 specimens of Bibionidse alone. None of the fossil Diptera present any striking de- partures from the modern types. Consult Seud- der, "Systematic Review of Our Present Knowl- edge of Fossil Insects," in Bulletin 81, Geological Survey (Washington, 1886). See Insect. Bibliography. Consult: YVilliston, Standard Natural History, vol. ii. (Boston, 1884) ; Willis- ton. Manual of. . . Worth American Diptera (New Haven, 1896) ; Knobel, Mosquitoes, Gnats, Crane Flies, Midges, and Flies of the Northern Stulis (Boston, 1897) ; Osten Sacken, Catalogue of the Described Diptera of North America (2d ed., Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 1878). Consult also general works mentioned under In- sects, and special books and papers mentioned under such special articles as Bot; Flesh-Fly; Fruit-Fly: Gad-Fly : Gall-Insect; Gnat: Hessian Fly; House-Fly; Mosquito; Bobber- Fly, etc. FLY. A river of New Guinea, rising at the base of the Victor Emmanuel Mountains, in the British portion of the island, and flowing first southwest and then southeast, emptying into the Gulf of Papua (Map: East Indies." K 6). For a portion of its course it marks the boundary between British and Dutch New Guinea. Its two main tributaries are the Alice and Strick- land rivers. The banks are covered with man- grove tries, and at its mouth there is a wide delta. It was explored by McGregor for over (iOO miles, but its total length lias never been ascertained. FLY. An assistant of the innkeeper in Ben Jonson's comedy The ew Inn. FLY-AG'ARIC. See Amanita; Fungi, Edi- ble s M> PoiSONOl 3, FLY-CASTING. Of the three main methods df angling, casting (lie fly is the most scientific and universal. Us devotees are divided into two schools the old-time or 'wet-fly' anglers, who whip the stream with a east of (I i< --. and shift ii place to place; and a ne'W school of 'dry- fly' anglei o i died because 1 ! i< ■> use but one very small fly on their line, and that constructed with upright wings, so thai when it drops on the water it remains dry anil natural, and the angler, remaining Stationary, wails for (lie rise. FLY-CATCHER. Both schools use in common a light, elastic, three- jointed rod, from 9 to 10 feet long, varying in weight according to the skill of the angler or the use to which it is to be put, from 3 Mi ounces upward. The line for trout is of waterproof silk, braided, of size F or G (the heavier being more easily cast) ; at the end of the line is attached a trader, made of single strands of clean, round, silkworm gut ; to this is tied the fly, or two or three, according to the method of the angler. Leaders may be stained a neutral tint by soaking in a strong solution of green tea and kept be- tween layers of damp felt. Before use soften again in water, or the gut may crack and become worthless. Beneath the rod, at the extreme end of the butt, should be fixed a steel-pivoted, single- action click reel. Casting the fly involves many intricate movements, to be perfected only by long practice. See Fishing; Salmon- Fishing; Trout- Fishing. FLY-CATCHER. (1) A name given to vari- ous birds of the order Passeres. but orignally ap- plied to those of the thrush-like family Muscica- pidse, having a moderately long, angular bill, broad and depressed at the base, compressed and slightly curved at the point ; the base surrounded with stiff hairs or bristles directed forward, which help to secure insect prey. The legs and feet are small ; the outer toe the longest, and at- tached to the middle one as far as the first joint. The wings are not long; their first quill-feather is very short ; the third is the longest. The birds of this family, as now restricted, are ex- clusively confined to the Old World, and mostly to the warmer parts of it. The true fly-catchers all have the habit of remaining perched for a long time in the same spot, only leaving it to make a sudden dart at a passing insect, which is seized with a snap of the bill, and then re- turning. They are almost never to be seen run- ning on the ground, or even on the branches of trees, and do not chase insects in the air like swallows. Even in the restricted use of the name the Muscicapidse include about 400 species, ar- ranged in nearly 60 genera. Only four species are European, two of which are British — the spotted fly-catcher (Muscicapa grisola) and the pied fly-catcher (Muscicapa atricapilla) — birds about the size of a sparrow, the former of which is common in most parts of England as a summer bird of passage, but rare in Scotland ; the latter is rare in Great Britain, although abundant in the south of Europe. The spotted fly-catcher is brownish-gray above, white beneath, the head and breast marked with dusky spots. Its call is a mere chirp. Tt is remarkable for the choice it makes of situations for its nest, often on a beam in an outhouse, on the side of a faggot stack, on the branch of a tree trained against a building, and Bometimes ever on a lamp-post, in a street. It lias been observed that a single pair of spotted fly-catchers feed their young no lower than 537 times in one day, and thai I lie i i' motion- are BO rapid that, to count the number of visits accurately, the observer must not lake his eye off the nest for a moment. (2) The name fly-catcher is often extended to in ni. n( similar habits belonging to other families, in America (he name is universally applied to the birds of the family Tyraimiihe, often styled 'tyranl fly-catchers.' This family is peculiar (o America, and contains some 350 species, of which