12 THE OBSERVATION BLIND 



ance when one spends hours in the little structure 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 umbrella 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 umbrella-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. 



"If the blind is to be used about home, a light denim may be em- 

 ployed; if it is to see the harder service 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 have been 

 thrust into the ground, when the blind is erected; an operation requiring 

 less than a minute. 



"When traveling, 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 together 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 obser- 

 vation. 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 gradually 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 covering, sewing them to it at intervals 

 and thus forming loops in which, when desired, reeds or branches may 

 be thrust. 



"In erecting the blind, if circumstances permit, it is desirable to 



