508 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



one when for the first time the air at night is actually seen to 

 be filled with the tiny songsters which before were known only as 

 timid haunters of woods and thickets. 



On September 2G, 1891, it was the writer's good fortune to pass 

 the night with several ornithologists at the Bartholdi Statue in 

 observing the nocturnal flight of birds. The weather was most 

 favorable for our purpose. From the balcony at the base of the 

 statue we saw the first bird enter the rays of light thrown out by 

 the torch one hundred and fifty feet above us at eight o'clock. 

 During the two succeeding hours birds were constantly heard 

 and many were seen. At ten o'clock a light rain began to fall 

 and for three hours it rained intermittently. Almost simulta- 

 neously there occurred a marked increase in the number of birds 

 seen about the light, and within a few minutes there were hun- 

 dreds where before there was one, while the air was filled with 

 the calls and chirps of the passing host. 



The birds presented a singular appearance. As they entered 

 the limits of the divergent rays of light they became slightly 

 luminous, but as their rapid wing-beats brought them into the 

 glare of the torch they reflected the full splendor of the light, and 

 resembled enormous fireflies or swarms of huge golden bees. 



At eleven o'clock we climbed to the torch and continued our 

 observations from the balcony by which it is encircled. The 

 scene was impressive beyond description ; we seemed to have torn 

 aside the veil which shrouds the mysteries of the night, and in 

 the searching light reposed the secrets of Nature. As the tiny 

 feathered wanderers emerged from the surrounding blackness, 

 appeared for a moment in the brilliant halo about us, and continu- 

 ing their journey were swallowed up in the gloom beyond, one 

 marveled at the power which guided them thousands of miles 

 through the trackless heavens. While by far the larger number 

 hurried onward without pausing to inspect this strange appari- 

 tion, others hovered before us like humming birds before a flower, 

 then wheeling retreated for a short distance and returned to repeat 

 the performance or pass us as did the first class mentioned, while 

 others still, and the number was comparatively insignificant, 

 struck some part of the torch either slightly or with sufficient 

 force to cause them to fall stunned or dying. It was evidently by 

 the merest accident that they struck at all ; and so far as we could 

 judge they were either dazzled by the rays of the light and thus 

 unwittingly flew directly at the glass which protects it, or came 

 in contact with some unilluminated part of the statue. During 

 the two hours we were in the torch thousands of birds passed 

 within sight, but less than twenty were killed. 



This fact, in connection with the comparative or entire absence 

 of birds on clear nights, very plainly shows that conclusions based 



