WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 381 



touched with fire. So vivid is the light that at the 

 first glance it is quite startling as if the whole col- 

 lection of wood were just on the point of bursting into 

 flame. In passing old hollow trees sometimes they 

 appear illuminated from within : the light proceeds 

 from the decaying " touchwood." Old willow trees 

 are sometimes streaked with such light from the top 

 to the foot of the trunk. As this phosphorescence is 

 only occasional, it would seem to depend on the con- 

 dition of the atmosphere. 



I once noticed what looked like a glow-worm on a 

 window-blind at night, but there was no glow-worm 

 there ; the light was of a pale greenish hue. In the 

 morning an examination snowed that the linen was 

 decayed and almost rotten just in that particular 

 spot, and it had slightly turned colour. Glow-worms 

 are uncommon in the district which has been more 

 particularly described. 



The ignis fatuus is almost extinct so much so that 

 Jack-o'-the-Lantern has died out of the village folk- 

 lore. On one occasion, however, I saw what at a 

 distance seemed a bright light shining in a ditch 

 where two hedges met. Thinking some mischief was 

 going on, I went to the spot, when the light disap- 

 peared ; but on retiring, after a search which proved 

 that no one was about, it came into view again. A 

 second time I approached, and a second time the 

 light died out. A few nights afterwards it was there 

 again, and must clearly have been some kind of ignis 

 fatuus. There was a small quantity of stagnant 



