xiv INTRODUCTION 



light denim may be employed; if it is to see the harder ser- 

 vice of travel and camp-life, a heavier grade of the same 

 material will be found more serviceable. In the former case 

 the denim may be sewed to the edge of the umbrella, which 

 then has only to be opened and placed in the brass tube, the 

 latter having been thrust into the ground, when the blind is 

 erected ; an operation requiring less than a minute. 



When travelling, it seems more desirable not to attach 

 the walls of the blind to the umbrella. The covering then 

 consists of several strips of material sewed together to 

 make a piece measuring ten and a half feet wide by six and 

 a half feet high. The two ends of this piece are sewed to- 

 gether at what then becomes the top of the blind, for about 

 two feet. The unjoined portion below, becomes the door of 

 the blind. Openings should be cut in the opposite side for 

 the lens and for observation. A strong draw cord is then 

 run about the top edge of the cloth so that, before inserting 

 and opening the umbrella, one can draw it up as one would 

 the neck of a bag, until the opening corresponds in size to 

 that of the umbrella. The draw cord should be long enough 

 to serve as a guy or stay. This covering places less strain 

 on the umbrella and may be packed in smaller space than 

 one which is sewed to the umbrella, and, when in camp, it 

 may be used to sleep on, as a covering, as a shelter tent or 

 in a variety of ways. 



The color of the umbrella should be leaf-green. The 

 covering should be sand- or earth-colored and should be 

 dyed leaf -green on its upper third whence it should gradu- 

 ally fade to the original cloth color at about the center. 

 Such a color scheme conforms to Abbott Thayer's law that 

 animals are darkest where they receive the most light, and 

 palest where they are most in shadow ; and renders the blind 

 much less conspicuous than if it were uniformly green or 

 gray. It is not amiss to run belts of braid about the cover- 

 ing, sewing them to it at intervals and thus forming loops 

 in which, when desired, reeds or branches may be thrust. 



