36o THE STORY OF A BIRD LOVER 



As I have said, I did finally pay the visit. I 

 was received with great courtesy and shown all 

 the apparatus and equipment, and finally many of 

 the glories of the heavens were viewed through 

 the new telescope ; Jupiter with its moons, Saturn 

 with its belt, and other marvels. When I was 

 about leaving, somewhere in the neighborhood of 

 nine o'clock, the full moon had just risen above 

 the horizon. It attracted my attention, and I 

 asked if I might look at it through the telescope. 

 The desired view revealed a great silvery disk, 

 looking to me perhaps some three or four feet 

 across. On the glistening background the land- 

 scape, if so it might be called, of the moon became 

 very apparent ; but presently, as I watched, every- 

 thing else was forgotten, as I saw an object which, 

 at the great distance, seemed little larger than a 

 fly, proceeding across the whole field of vision, sil- 

 houetted against the shining satellite. My sensa- 

 tions as I watched the spectacle are hardly to be 

 described, for I knew I had seen, at least once, 

 what had never been recorded before. I had seen 

 a small song-bird flying at night. Other people 

 had heard them, and I had heard them, but no 

 one had recorded seeing a song-bird fly at night. 

 I turned to Professor Young and asked him if he 

 often saw birds in that way when he was observ- 

 ing the moon, and his answer was, " I have seen 

 them for forty years." 



