INTRODUCTION 



xiii 



This at least has been my experience with the blind from 

 the shelter of which more than one-half the pictures in this 

 volume were made. In brief, this blind is an umbrella 

 opened within a bag long enough to fall to the ground. Its 

 parts may be described in detail as follows : 



The Umbrella.- The umbrella employed in making an 

 observation blind is known to the trade as a "sign" um- 

 brella. It agrees with the normal variety in size but differs 

 from it in having a large hole in the 

 centre. This permits a current of 

 air to pass through the blind a 

 matter of the first importance when 

 one spends hours in the little struc- 

 ture on beach or marsh, where it is 

 fully exposed to the sun. The 

 " stick" of this umbrella is a metal 

 tube without the usual wooden 

 handle. 



The Supporting Rod. The um- 

 brella is supported by two brass 

 tubes each of the same length as the 

 umbrella, or thirty-two inches. The 

 larger is shod with a steel point, by 

 the insertion of a small cold chisel 

 or nail-punch, which is brazed in 

 position. The rod can then be 

 readily driven into the ground. At 

 the upper end a thumb-screw is 

 placed. The smaller tube should enter the larger snugly 

 and should, in turn, be just large enough to receive the um- 

 brella-rod, which will enter it as far as the spring "catch." 

 The height of the umbrella may, therefore, be governed by 

 the play of the smaller tube in the larger, while the thumb- 

 screw will permit one to maintain any desired adjustment ; 

 as one would fix the height of a music rack. 



The Covering. If the blind is to be used about home, a 



The Umbrella 

 and Supporting Rods 



