from them, in some cases these fibres are in the form of tiny hooks that act by holding the barbs together. This tendency to hold together rather than easily separate is known as web: the stiffer the hooks - the greater the holding power (web) and visa versa. On birds such as the Ostrich, Emu and Peacock these fibres are much larger result- ing in the barbs being unable to hold together, barbs in this case are generally called Herl. Both Herl and barb are pretty much the same thing in different scales and can be tied in as a tail, wound to form a body, used for wing pads/wings and much more. Yum! I call it all Herl but some people don't so I've mentioned it to save confusion.
Going Down - At the base of the feather the barbs/fibres/Herl start to become fuzzy. This is called down. Down fibres are often used for very fuzzy bodies and some- times tails or gills on inver-
tebrate copies. I've never really used it so it's in for the sake of completeness. Value for money? I think so.
Quill - The stiff bit up the middle (dapper as al- ways). The purpose of the quill is to hold the barbs, most quills have no use, (unless you lose your biro), but some feathers have very narrow quills that when the barbs are removed can be wound to form really groovy fly bodies.
Flanks for the memory
Yet more useful points. Wings - feathers for wings vary; at times we may want to see each individual barb protruding from the fly whilst at others we may want them held together. Regarding the latter we would be look- ing for the large primary feathers (think quill pen) from the bird's wing. The barbs upon these feath-
ers are heavily webbed and will therefore hold their form when cut and applied to a hook.
Classic winging feathers in this style include those found upon beasties such as crows, mallard, teal, partridge and starling. Regarding the former, some of the most common feathers with that lit- tle bit less holding power include neck, flank feathers of various species including those above and pheasant tails. There are many more but these are some of the commonest available.
And still they come.
Tails - Anything that sticks out really. Comprehensive and straight to the point. Hackle - A hackle is not a feather. To tie in a hackle is to use a feather in a specific way. Cer- tain feathers are more suited to this purpose than others and are subsequently known as hackle feathers. Suitability is dependant upon the area of plucking, back, flank, wing etc. The term hackle is used to describe the winding of a quill, barbs and all, around a hook. When wound the barbs protrude outwards around the circumference of the hook shank in the style of a collar. Anything with suitable flexibility can be used. Common hackle feathers include items such as Grouse, Par- tridge, .Woodcock and Snipe to name but a few, they are the nice soft mildly webby feathers that are found on the breast, belly, flank and back of most game birds. They're nice, cheap and easy to work with. However, there is a dark side to hackle feathers.
To be continued...
http://www.sexyloops.com I Shoot and Fish E-Zine December 2011 69
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