THE FASCINATION OF LIGHT 



Few observers can have failed to notice the 

 fascination and attraction which is exercised upon 

 the lower animals at night by the exhibition of a light. 

 Familiar examples of this are seen in the flocking 

 of migratory birds towards a lighthouse, and the 

 advent of moths to a lamp or candle. This has 

 been so long and so well known, that hunters, 

 fowlers, and fishermen have all taken advantage of 

 it, each in his own way, to lure their respective 

 quarry — a method, it must be confessed, which 

 savours more of poaching than of true sport. 

 Readers of American books on hunting in bygone 

 days will recall descriptions of the way in which 

 deer were enticed within rifle shot by showing a 

 light, towards which they would slowly and timidly 

 advance to their destruction. " Bat-fowling," 

 which the old books define as " the taking by night 

 of all manner of birds, great and small, which 

 roost in shrubs and bushes," is thus described in 

 The Gentleman s Recreation, 1697 : — 



" You must be very silent till your lights are 

 blazing, and you may either carry nets or none ; 

 if none, you must have long poles, with great bushy 

 tops fixed to them ; and having from a cresset, or 

 vessel to carry fire in, lighted your straw or other 



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