Hackles

[Traditionalist]

Another plate from West ( In index here;  http://www.wildfisher.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=16856.msg180937#msg180937  )

The same plate using different enhancements so that you may judge the colour better.



PLATE 10.
HACKLE FEATHERS. POULTRY, &c.

1. Cochybondu Cock (neck).  2. Furnace Cock (neck). 3. Red Cock (neck).  4. Red with White List, Cock.  5. Red Cockerel.  6. Yellow or Brassy Cock.  

7. Dark Badger Cock. 8. Yellow Badger Cock. 9. Pale Badger Cock. 10. Brown Badger Hen. 11. Game Hen. 12. Pale Game Hen. 13. Dark Game Hen.

14. Dark Cinnamon Hen.  15. Cinnamon Hen. 16. Dark Buff Hen. 17. Buff Hen. 18. Cree Hen. 19. Yellow Cree Cock. 20. Yellow Cree Cock. 21. Fine Cree Cock.

22. Black Cock. 23. Black Hen. 24. Green Black Cock. 25. Dark Blue Cock. 26. Dark Blue Hen. 27. Light Blue Cockerel. 28. Rusty Cock. 29. Rusty Hen.

30. Dark Honey Dun. 31. Medium Honey Dun. 32. Honey Dun. 33. Merlin or Blue Hawk. 34. Coot or Water Hen. 35. Dark Snipe (under wing).

36. Starling (under wing).  37. Grey Partridge (breast). 38. Brown Partridge (back). 39. Woodcock (dark back). 40. Light Woodcock (under wing).

41. Brown Owl (back or wing). 42. Grouse, Cinnamon. 43. Grouse, Speckled. 44. Grouse, Barred. 45. Landrail or Corncrake. 46. Curlew.

47. Golden Plover. 48. Ibis.  49. Parakeet or Love Bird.  50. Green Plover or Pewitt  topping.  51. Dyed Hackles.

   
1. The cochybondu is a very difficult feather to get in small sizes. It is, however, much more plentiful in larger sizes, as the small leathers are apt to be too black. The example shown is a good one, having good black, "list" next the quill, then good deep red and black tips. It is the black tips which dis- 2. tinguish it from No. 2.

The furnace hackles 3-4-5. (Nos. 3, 4, 5) call for no special comment.

6. No. 6 a real, bright "brassey" is not met every day. It is the best possible base for dying on, and also makes first rate wings for

7-9.  lacewings" and ''yellow sallies," &c. The dark and light badgers are favourites for many hackled and wing flies, and No. 8, "black yellow black," is the original hackle of Greenwell's Glory.

10. The brown badger is not used as much as it might be. It makes a very good imitation of brown or white legs, which are often seen in nature.

Three shades from the neck of a game hen. These are sometimes called " honey duns," and may be obtained in a very wide range of shades, most of them being useful.

14-15- Range from buff to deep cinnamon, and 16- 17 are all useful; they are all hen feathers, and for caddis flies are very suitable. Small hackles of these colours are great favourites with grayling.

18-2 1. Various colours of "Crees"; the finest in the markings are the most useful, and the tips of the small feathers make first rate wings for gnats and small stone flies.

22. Black cock, a very useful feather for many purposes.

23. Black hen of a smoky colour, also very useful.

24. Is a lustrous black green, rather stiffer, and floats better than No. 23.

25. When held up to the light this is many shades lighter, and has a fine glassy grey colour.

26. Is a hen feather, duller of fibre, but nearly the same colour.

27. Is a fine glassy light Andalusian cock of good quality.

28-29. Are " rusty" blues, that is : when held up to the light they have a distinct brownish red tinge, especially at the tips.

30-31-32 Are very much sought after; they are honey duns of three shades, being the colour of rather dark old honey along the quills, and new honey at the tips of the fibres.

33. The merlin or blue hawk back, provides excellent pale blue, much sought after by grayling fishers ; the heron and the tern or sea-swallow also yield somewhat similar feathers.

34. The Coot provides some very good hackles on the back, the wings, and also under the wings.

35. The various snipes, sand pipers, stints, dunlins, and other shore birds give feathers of this type, though one of the best is under the wing of the jack-snipe.

36. The starling's under wing provides this feather, which is often palmed off as a dotteril for hackles of that ilk.

37. The grey partridge is useful, but not as

38. generally so as the brown one, which will kill with or without a wing and with almost any coloured body, where the trout are not over educated.

39-40. From the back and underwing of the woodcock ; they are used both as hackle or wing feathers.

41. The brown owl, used as a hackle imitation of a caddis fly.

42-43-44 These three are grouse hackles of very varied colour, and all useful.

45. This is a landrail hackle of very useful colour, as are almost all the. feathers on this bird.

46. The curlew, much used for hackle flies on the moors where the bird abounds.

47. The golden plover, also useful, the contrast between the yellow and the dark ash colour, making fine speckled legs.

48. The ibis, used for tags, heads, and tails, and on occasion, legs, when a freak is wanted.

49. The small parakeet, which is a fine insect green, and sometimes takes both trout and grayling when they are skittish and refuse more commonplace diet.

50. The pewit crest ; very useful when a long fine hackle is desired.

The best way to judge of the real quality of a hackle is to try the texture and then hold it up to the light, when a much truer judgment may be formed of its real colour than by looking at it by reflected light.

51. The various dyed hackles shown are those used when attempting to obtain a prismatic effect in the fly.

[Traditionalist]

HONEY DUN- Has a gray or blue dun list with honey colored tips When the list is dark, the hackle is called Dark Honey Dun and when the list is light it is called Light honey Dun. The neck, breast, back and shoulder feathers from a Golden Plover are a a perfect dark honey dun!

For anybody wishing a sample of true dun. It is the same colour as an adult cock starling primary feather. This is a medium grey with a faint brown "impression" and no trace of blue!

Lastly, the colour "Dun" itself was an extremely rare colour in poultry hackles, although it is common in game bird and similar "soft" hackles. . ( There are now genetic poultry duns available. I have only ever seen one true dun cape which was not genetic. When "dun" is used in many of the older books, then "blue dun" is often meant, as they had no true "dun" feathers either. Real "dun" is a dull dusty ( sometimes refrerred to as "dirty") greyish brown colour, with no sign of blue in it.

For anybody wishing a sample of true dun. It is the same colour as an adult cock starling primary feather.

Dun originally meant a brownish grey to dull greyish brown. many authors and flydressers over the years used the expression in a number of ways. This has caused great confusion for many, not least as a written description can hardly suffice to describe various colours and variations thereof. Also, some language usage has changed over the years.

Descriptions like "brassy blue dun" which is a grey/blue colour with a golden yellow "sheen" to the feathers, or "Honey dun", which is a feather with honey/ginger coloured tips, and a grey/brown list, ( the "list" is the centre stripe of a feather), or "Rusty dun", which is a blue/grey/brown feather with reddish or yellowish spots, have considerably added to the confusion. many of these feathers were quite rare anyway, and it is doubtful whether flies dressed with them were any more effective than flies dressed with other feathers, or with double hackles etc. Most dun colours do not have the sheen associated with modern genetic hackle for instance. The "list" of many blue dun coloured feathers was often rather webby, and in fact less suitable for dry flies.

"Olive dun", is a browny/grey feather with a strong olive cast.

"Brown dun", is a brown feather with a greyish cast, and so it goes on.

"Blue Dun" is a grey/blue feather with a brownish cast.

All these descriptions are also used with modifiers, like "light", "medium", "dark", "pale" "Spangled "Brassy", "Rusty" and a number of other combinations, some of which are given above.Various feathers now referred to as "Something/ duns", were also referred to as "Furnace", this term, without a modifier ,refers to a hackle with red tips and a black list. "Blue furnace" is a hackle with red tips and a blue/grey list,also referred to as "honey dun", and the possibilities go on...............

FURNACE - Has a very dark, black or blue dun list next to the stem and on the tips of the fibres. In between the dark list and the tips is a good color, usually a red, yellow, white or silver.. However! Nowadays the term "Furnace" means a hackle with black list and red tips!

Until 1885 the terms, "Furnace" and "Coch y bonddu" were used interchangeably for the same hackles, which were either black list/red tips, or black list/ red / black tips. Hofland was the first author to use the term "coch a bonddu" in 1839, and specified the colour as "red and black" Francis Francis also specified "A dark red hackle with a black streak up the middle". A number of other authors made similar observations.

This meant that to that date, the hackle used to represent a Coch y Bonddu beetle was dark red with a black list, which is now universally referred to as "Furnace".

G.M Kelson, who wrote for the "Fishing Gazette", on salmon flies, published his idea for "standardising" the hackle descriptions! He stated that furnace was black/red  and coch y bonddu was black/red/black. He also invented several other quite fanciful names, like "Blue Furnace" etc. Not a single fly-dresser or angler, of the many who replied to the Gazette, agreed with him! When challenged, he admitted simply inventing most of the names. Strangely though, Kelson´s "misnomers" have gradually taken over!!! Many are generally used today.

Kelson was also the centre of some other controversies. The most famous one being when R.B. Marston, the editor of the "Fishing Gazette", publiclly completely dismantled some of his theories and ideas on salmon flies. This was accompanied by a famous cartoon "The Inky Boy".

The correct spelling of furnace was also once "Furness", an old English Game breed which was popular in the Hundreds of Furness in Lancashire.

This might only be of minor interest, but it has a major effect on the interpretation of patterns used and published before that time! The outstanding example here being the "Greenwells Glory", for which the good Canon Greenwell specified a coch y bonddu hackle. A hen hackle was most likely used for the original, which was dressed as a wet fly, and there were virtually no coch y bonddu hens in existence, and there still are not! Skues actually stated on several occasions that they did not exist.

This is not exactly true, I have some coch y bonndu hen hackles, but they are the only ones I have ever seen, and are very very rare, to the extent that they may only be treated as "freak" capes.

So, the original feather used for the Greenwells Glory, was a furnace hen!  Nowadays, for light flies, a "Greenwell" hackle is used, this is a light or "ginger" furnace hackle. This description has only been used since about 1950.

GRIZZLE  With regard to barred and banded feathers, a small selection would be, "Cuckoo", Grizzle, creel, cree, monkey, chinchilla, irish grey, and many others. The modern genetic Black and white barred "Grizzly" hackles are in fact "Cuckoo". "Grizzled" or Grizzly" is not a colour as such, but describes the barring!

GENETIC
There is considerable confusion with regard to "Genetic" hackles. These birds have not been genetically altered in a laboratory, but are the result of extremely selective breeding. Whiting farms are presently the leader in the production of genetic capes and saddles, and their website contains a lot of information;

http://www.whitingfarms.com/