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Four dry, two wet

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The dry four The wet two Everything here is small And the quantities are smaller again The regulated question is about one leaf Which is the distinction worth drawing early And the craft is lawful anyway The shelf disagrees with its own archetype Which is the reverse of the metalwork finding Read the Act section before buying hackle References

Median container 59 mL. The smallest shelf in the library, and the craft is smaller still.

The dry four

Hackle, thread, bead and dubbing. Feather, spooled thread, small metal beads and loose fibre, all sorted obsessively by size, colour and grade.

The wet two

Head cement, a solvent-borne lacquer that seals the thread wraps, and floatant, a wax or silicone paste that keeps a dry fly on the surface. Neither is dry and the archetype describes neither.

Everything here is small

The median container on this shelf is 59 mL and nothing exceeds 250 mL. For once the catalog and the craft agree about scale.

And the quantities are smaller again

A tyer keeps a few grams of each dubbing colour and a dozen beads of each size. 100 containers at 30 mL or under is the part of this shelf that matters.

The regulated question is about one leaf

Hackle. Feather, and therefore the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which does not stop at the feather but reaches the finished fly.

Which is the distinction worth drawing early

Our beach and field finds property covers the same Act for what you may keep. This one is about what you may make from it and then sell, ship or carry.

And the craft is lawful anyway

Because commercial tying hackle is domesticated poultry bred for the purpose. The materials section sets that out, and it is a better answer than an exemption would be.

The shelf disagrees with its own archetype

store-small-dry says wide mouth and 275 of 335 containers are bottles. For a craft that is four fifths dry sorting, that is the wrong shape.

Which is the reverse of the metalwork finding

There the shelf quietly corrected a narrow-mouth rule by arriving as jars. Here the rule is right and the shelf did not follow it.

Read the Act section before buying hackle

Not because the usual material is a problem, but because the clause that reaches a finished fly is the one nobody expects.

References

The archetype behind this shelf is store-small-dry: 15 to 500 mL, wide mouth, PP and PET and glass, cold, solid, chunky, scooped, with "small dry parts, wide mouth to get fingers in, clear so you can see what is inside" as its stated reason. Four of the six leaves are dry sorting crafts it describes well, and the shelf does not follow it: 275 of 335 containers are bottles.

The Davis Pack Supply catalog, measured 19 October 2026. The fly tying shelf is 716 rows: 335 containers and 381 closures. 5 mL to 250 mL with a median of 59; 30 containers at 15 mL or under, 100 at 30 or under, 204 at 60 or under, and nothing above 250 mL. 165 PET, 84 glass, 62 HDPE, 24 PP. 275 bottles, 59 jars, 1 tube. 79 white, 71 clear, 61 amber, 42 blue, 24 natural, 19 black. Closures: 260 continuous thread, 43 dropper assemblies, 20 dome lids, 16 flip top, 14 phenolic, 9 liners and sealing discs, 6 specialty, 6 dropper tips and caps, 3 euro droppers.

16 U.S.C. 703(a), the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Unless permitted by regulation, "it shall be unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to barter, barter, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, export, import, cause to be shipped, exported, or imported, deliver for transportation, transport or cause to be transported, carry or cause to be carried, or receive for shipment, transportation, carriage, or export, any migratory bird, any part, nest, or egg of any such bird, or any product, whether or not manufactured, which consists, or is composed in whole or part, of any such bird or any part, nest, or egg thereof" as specified in four bilateral treaties. law.cornell.edu

Written from 16 U.S.C. 703(a) and 50 CFR 10.13, and from the catalog as it stood on 19 October 2026. This property does not say which species are on the protected list, because that is a lookup against 50 CFR 10.13 rather than something to assert from memory. CITES, the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act can each reach exotic tying materials independently and none of them is read here.