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Cock Y Bondhu
Badger with a black tip and edge, List, or Cock-Y-Bondhu all seem to be correct.
Badger Hackle, according to George Leonard Herter in his 1950 edition of "Fly Tying and Tackle Making":
Badger: In its true form, Badger came from the Northern Ceylon Jungle Jungle Fowl and was white to creamy white with a black to dark brown center stripe down the center of each feather. When domesticated and used in breeding, some of the birds developed black tips on the extremities of the hackle feathers and their edges. The English writers called these Badgers, and the true form, List, mixing the whole thing up. Actually either is Badger, List being a type of Badger hackle with the tip and edges of the hackle fibers are black.
In the same chapter he describes Cock-Y-Bondhu:
Cock-Y-Bondhu: This is a type of Furnace hackle. It is a Furnace hackle that is brown with a black streak down the center. The edges of the hackle fibers and the tips are black. The name originated in Scotland and was taken from the name of the Cock-Y-Bondhu fly which was made to imitate a small red and black beetle native to parts of Scotland.
Based on the above definitions I guess this would be click on True Cock-Y-Bondue and what I'm offering is actually Light Cock-Y-Bondhu.
My good friend Dave Carne (my stuffy Brit who knows more about this stuff than most anyone) has come to my rescue as to True Cock-Y-Bondhu. We have had phone conversations regarding this very topic but Herter was the only written reference I used. Dave's note to me is as follows:
Just a quick note/correction re-the coch-y-bonddu - it's welsh not scottish and actually means 'black with red centre' in welsh, ie the centre of the fibre between the list and the tip (hence my previous notes about kelson being incorrect in describing a hackle as a white coch-y-bonddu - BTW previously when I mentioned the name 'little cap button' it transpires that is actually the translation from welsh of the name of the beetle itself) - nought to do with scotland, I believe the heather beetle it imitates is native more or less only to wales as well - they actually look like minature dung beetles (about 6mm long) with a rich brown back and black legs, head and underbody and are very common in the mountains there where I used to climb when I was young.
The TRUE dressing of the coch-y-bonddu fly is a flat gold tip, no tail, bronze peacock herl body, no rib and coch-y-bonddu hackle - essentially like an original coachman with a different hackle and no white duck wings.
Of the two 'true CyBs you illustrate the right one of the CYB (the ideal CYB being a deep bull's blood red) - the left being what we call a 'furnace' - which is either a badger or a black tipped badger with a red game body, if the colour is a rich dark ginger then it is a greenwells (after the fly needless to say).
Thank you Dave you are absolutely correct again.
If you want them dyed contact John@FeathersMc.com
Temporarily out of stock