126 The Irish Naiiiralisi, July • 



The light it gave was a reddish yellow, and one could 

 sec a vibration about it as though the beat of the bird's 

 wings came across the light and made it look flickering. 

 In fact it was so exactly like the light given by an oil 

 bicycle lamp when someone is riding on a rough road that 

 it was difficult to believe it was nothing of the sort ; it was 

 a shade redder in colour but quite as strong as the usual 

 oil bicycle lamp. From the time we saw it first away down 

 the river till it turned and went out over the fields was 

 about twenty minutes. 



I know now that I must have often seen these birds 

 before, as crossing the ferry on winter nights I have 

 wondered why anyone should be wandering with a lantern 

 along the embankment and in the fic^lds so late when there 

 are no animals to look after. Now when I see a light I 

 stop to observe it, and if I suddenly see it swoop out over 

 the river or travel in half a minute from the bottom to the 

 top of a hill 400 feet high (and sometimes even high in the 

 air above it, as I have seen on occasions), I know it is a 

 bird and not a man with a lantern. The most remarkable 

 fact which strikes me each time I see on(\ is, the quality 

 of the light. I expected to see a white phosphorescent 

 light, not the reddish yellow it is ; when the bird swoops 

 up it seems to flash out brighter and not so red, but this 

 may be a delusion, the bird moves so quick. 



I have several times seen it reflected in the river when 

 the bird has been over the hillside three-quarters of a mile 

 from where I was standing. Four lights at a time is the 

 largest number I ever saw, two is the usual number. 



I have seen them more often on rather damp nights 

 with heavy clouds overhead. I have seen them also on 

 clear nights when the moon is half full and giving a good 

 deal of light. The ferryman, on my asking him when he 

 noticed them first, said he did not remember, they had 

 always been there even when he was a boy (he is about 

 43), but lie did not see much of them till he became 

 ferryman about eight years ago. 



1 liave read over this account to onr of my sisters 

 who IS at home, and she fully subscribes to the account of 

 wliat I saw with her. 



Campliirc, Cappocjuin. 



