MIGBATION. 165 



were constantly in sight, and from one to eight or ten dashing 

 at the lantern. ... I remained on the lighthouse from ten 

 o'clock until two the next morning. During this time fully 

 two hundred birds came against the lantern. Of these at least 

 fifty were killed or disabled, and I caught and examined prob- 

 ably fifty more which were too wet or exhausted to fly after 

 dropping on the platform. 



" At the height of the melee the scene was interesting and 

 impressive beyond almost anything that I ever witnessed. 

 Above, the inky black sky ; on all sides, dense wreaths of 

 fog scudding swiftly past and completely enveloping the sea 

 which moaned dismally at the base of the cliffs below ; about 

 the top of the tower, a belt of light projected some thirty yards 

 into the mist by the powerful reflectors ; and in this belt 

 swarms of birds, circling, floating, soaring, now advancing, 

 next retreating, but never quite able, as it seemed, to throw 

 off the spell of the fatal lantern. Their rapidly vibrating 

 wings made a haze about their forms which in the strong light 

 looked semitransparent. At a distance all appeared of a pale, 

 silvery-gray color, nearer, of a rich yellow. They reminded me 

 by turns of meteors, gigantic moths, swallows with sunlight 

 streaming through their wings. I could not watch them for 

 any length of time without becoming dizzy and bewildered. 



" When the wind blew strongly, they circled around to lee- 

 ward, breasting it in a dense throng, which drifted backward 

 and forward, up and down, like a swarm of gnats dancing in 

 the sunshine. Dozens were continually leaving this throng 

 and skimming toward the lantern. As they approached they 

 invariably soared upward, and those which started on a level 

 with the platform usually passed above the roof. Others 

 sheered off at the last moment, and shot by with arrowlike 

 swiftness, while more rarely one would stop abruptly and, 



