APPARATUS AND GENERAL ADVICE. 11 



it rolled up. So I took the hoops out, and fasten- 

 ing the galvanised wire together I formed it into 

 an oblong sheet, threaded each of the pieces of 

 bamboo through its meshes, like slats, covered the 

 whole with the American cloth, and drawing the 

 two edges together with strings tied the hoops in 

 their respective positions inside. The top was 

 arranged broken-column fashion, to represent a 

 storm-snapped trunk; and in painting that portion 

 of it I took care to make it look as if innumerable 

 birds had perched upon it. My wife painted the 

 whole to represent bark, and when it was dry my 

 brother glued small pieces of moss and lichen on 

 to it, and I fastened a number of pieces of strong 

 thread to the wire inside and passed the ends 

 through to the outside. With these we tied on a 

 number of sprays of ivy, which we stripped from 

 the trunks of trees, as nearly in the same position 

 as that in which they grew, so as to make the 

 whole thing realistic, and the illustration on page 13 

 will give some idea how far we succeeded. The 

 next thing was to slit a hole for the lens in 

 front, and a small one on either side for the eye 

 of the photographer. The device, it is pleasant to 

 relate, answered our highest expectations upon the 

 very first trial, and some of the photographs taken 

 by its aid, illustrating the next two chapters of this 

 work, furnish incontestable proof of what may be 

 done by such an effective method of hiding. 



If any wind happens to be blowing after I have 



