122 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
doubt that they were Barn-Owls, though that was not suspected 
at the time. As long ago as 1866 Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown met with 
an instance of it in the Barn-Owl in Cambridgeshire, which was 
never recorded, and other cases might be cited which for various 
reasons did not find their way into print. 
With regard to what causes the luminosity, the general idea 
in Norfolk is to ascribe it to the luminous touchwood which is 
occasionally to be seen in trees, more particularly in the ash. 
At a meeting of the Norwich Naturalists’ Society, when the 
luminosity of Owls was made the subject of discussion, Mr. 8. H. 
Long stated that this luminous touchwood was due to the 
presence of certain mycelium forming Fungi, which is also what 
Mr. M. C. Cooke says. In his ‘Introduction to the Study of 
Fungi,’ p. 89, Mr. M. C. Cooke says :—‘‘ Several Agarics have 
this property, of which the largest number for any locality have 
been met with in Australia. All of them are species found grow- 
ing upon dead wood, and all have white spores. Nearly the same 
story is related of all of them—to the effect that they emit a 
light sufficiently powerful to enable the time on a watch to be seen 
by it.” In this way bacteria may have been imparted to the 
feathers of the Owls by contact, supposing that they inhabited a 
luminous hollow in some tree. 
Another theory has been put forward by Mr. W. P. Pyeraft, 
viz. that this luminosity may possibly be really due to some 
species of feather fungus new to science, for, he adds, it is known 
that feather fungido exist, and he cites the case of a Goose thus 
affected. It would be a great pity to shoot these Owls, I think, | 
but if their lair could be discovered we should at any rate see if | 
it was a luminous hole, which would advance us one step in the 
inquiry. 
The Vernal and Autumnal Migrations.—Nothing uncommon 
characterized the vernal migration, except it be worth mentioning | 
that there was rather a late passage of Fieldfares. The Sociable | 
Plovers and other rare birds which showed themselves in the | 
county of Kent sent no contingent, as far as we know, to Norfolk | 
or Suffolk. Neither was the autumnal migration marked by the 
rushes which sometimes characterize that season of the year. 
Except for an inrush of Rooks on the Suffolk coast on Oct. 26th, 
there were no real congregations of Corvide seen, and nothing 

