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. 
“Tf 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 eloth 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. 
‘Tn erecting the blind, if circumstances permit, it is desirable to 
