FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH BIRDS 

 the large flocks of Cormorants that came there to 

 roost every night. The island was small and per- 

 fectly barren, and any other method of attempted 

 concealment would have failed utterly. 



Another time, while crouched among some boulders 

 watching for a flock of Gambel's Quails to come to a 

 water-hole in the Santa Catalina Mountains of 

 Arizona, a Canyon Wren alighted on my back, for 

 I was covered with an old tent fly so spotted with 

 mildew that it closely resembled the neighbouring 

 rocks. A moment later it flew to a point scarcely 

 more than a foot from my face, when, after one 

 terrified look, it departed. 



The Umbrella Blind. — A device now often used 

 by ornithologists is the umbrella blind, which is easy 

 to construct. Take a stout umbrella, remove the 

 handle, and insert the end in a hollow brass rod five 

 feet long. Sharpen the rod at the other end and 

 thrust it into the ground. Over the raised umbrella 

 throw a dark green cloth cut and sewed so as to make 

 a curtain that will reach the ground all round. A 

 [17] 



