Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 67 



In addition to plants, Gesner also mentioned as luminous small 

 animals that are called noctilucae; " the sea fish lucerna or milvus; 

 a fish the " Greeks call selache -° which shines clearly at night "; 

 the firefly (pygolampis) , although Gesner did not recall seeing one 

 himself; a small worm similar to a caterpillar (eruca) -^ " which 

 emits such a clear light at night that letters can be read "; the eyes 

 of many animals including fish, and the feathers of a rare bird of 

 the Hercynian Forest, described by Pliny. 



Practically all the great naturalists, and others who wrote in 

 lighter vein, believed in luminous birds. In addition to Johannes de 

 Cuba (1536) , John Maplet (died 1592) , Vicar of Northolt Church 

 in Middlesex, published from London in 1567, A Greene Forest, or a 

 Natural Historie, wherein may bee seene the most siifferaigne vertues 

 in all the whole kinde of stones and mettals; of brute beates, fowles, 

 fishes, etc. Concerning the " Hercynie Birdes " which " breede 

 [in] a Wood in Germanic," he wrote that their " feathers shine so 

 by night, and when as the Ayre is shut in, that although the night 

 be never so darcke and close, yet they give them their best light: 

 so that to a man journeying they are to his great sunderance, being 

 cast before him in the way whereas he goeth." 



The Hercynian birds were also described in the Hortus Sanitatus,^^ 

 probably written by Johann von Caub (Cuba or Cube) , who 

 fluorished in the latter part of the fifteenth century. Unfortunately 

 there is no woodcut in the 1536 edition, but later authors have 

 identified the Hercynian birds as Bohemian waxwings (Garrulus 

 bohemicus or Bombycilla garrulus) , whose red-tipped feathers re- 

 flect light.^^ 



Other examples of luminescence mentioned in Gesner's book were 

 the fiery vapors around damp places, especially temples and ceme- 

 teries, what are commonly called ignes fatui, and various types of 

 electric discharges. Gesner wrote: ^^ 



^* These might be any small luminous organism. 



"•* Possibly a luminous shark but more likely apparent luminosity due to disturbance 

 of luminous dinoflagellates as the fish swims through the water. 



21 Possibly caterpillars living on Cole- Wort, Brassica eruca, which have in modem 

 times been described as luminous from infection by bacteria. Eruca applies to either 

 the worm or the plant. 



-='The first edition of the Ortus sanitatis appeared at Mainz in 1495. There were 

 many later editions. Like most natural histories of that tiine, the divisions of the book 

 were (1) animals and reptiles (2) birds and flying things (3) fish and swimming 

 things (4) gems and other materials born of the earth. The glowworm (cicendula) 

 is mentioned in the 1517 edition under " Avibus " (cap. XXXI), with a description 

 taken from the Liber de naturis rerum. 



2^ See Cuvier's commentary on Pliny in the Agasson de Grandsage edition (Paris, 

 1829), L. Denise (1910), and W. L. McAtee, Luminosity in birds {American Midland 

 Naturalist 38: 207-213, 1947) . None of the reported luminescent birds are known to be 

 self-luminous. 



