DYEING. 39 



tackle- makers know so well how to describe and 

 recommend. These gentlemen should be listened 

 to, even although one may sometimes pay rather 

 dearly for the whistle. More fish than cash is 

 taken by their nets after all ; and everybody 

 knows the peculiar comfort of being well pro- 

 vided with tackle (and Prog by the bye) when 

 distant from the sources of provision. We also 

 know the pride and pleasure of supplying a 

 " Venator " with a seasonable well-made fly or 

 a length of gut, all which has many a time led 

 to an agreeable acquaintance with a brother 

 angler. 



RECIPES FOR DYEING AND STAINING 

 FEATHERS, ETC. 



1. ; TO DYE WHITE FEATHERS A DUN COLOUR. 



Make a mordant by dissolving about a quarter 

 of an ounce of alum in a pint of water, and 

 slightly boil the feathers in it, taking care that 

 they shall be thoroughly soaked or saturated 

 with the solution ; then boil them in other water 

 with fustick, shumach, and a small quantity of 

 copperas, put into it until they have assumed 

 the required tint. The fustick and copperas will 

 make a yellow dun tint ; the shumack and cop- 

 peras a blue dun tint. The greater the quantity 

 of copperas the deeper will be the dye. 



