THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
the first time emphasized and insisted upon by a correspondent of the 
* Liberte,’ who has taken great pains to get at the truth, deriving his facts 
from numerous eye-witnesses. The ‘engines of destruction ’ are the light- 
houses provided with electric light. 
“ The first offender is the lighthouse on the Pointe de Penmarch, in 
Brittany, which has a revolving light of thirty million candle-power. 
Visiting this on November 10 last year, and again on the 12th, the 
observer saw tens of thousands of birds whirling round, and it seemed 
to him that the light shot out a perfect hail of electric sparks amongst 
the migrants. However that may be, next morning he was present while 
the dead bodies were being collected. They are dispatched every day to 
Paris by train, and the ‘ catch,’ he was told, often comprised from 2,000 
to 4,000 victims ; one morning alone there had been more than 500 wood- 
cocks in the ‘ bag.’ As for what he himself actually saw on the two mornings 
he was present at the collection of the victims, there were only a score 
of woodcocks the first morning, but on the second the ground was littered 
with from 600 to 1,000 victims, chiefly blackbirds, ducks, woodcocks, 
thrushes, and golden plovers. Western Brittany used to be a favourite 
haunt for woodcock, but every year now the number grows smaller, 
thanks to the slaughter at the lighthouses. 
“ The second offender is the lighthouse on Belle He, off the South Coast 
of Brittany. On two dark nights at the end of last November, with an 
east wind blowing, this light caused the death of 3,200 birds, including 
curlews, thrushes, snipes, starlings, over 100 woodcocks, and some 
sparrows and quails. 
“ Thirdly, the Pilier Lighthouse kills every season some 700 woodcocks. 
“ An old sportsman of Normandy declares that round the lighthouse 
of Barfleur last November there were picked up in the course of four 
nights 10,000 birds of all sorts, including 1,800 woodcocks. 
“Be it remarked that these figures only refer to four out of the many 
lighthouses round the French coast. It is impossible, of course, to interfere 
with these strong lights and the protection they give to shipping, but 
could not a means be found of preventing their blinding effect on birds ? 
The St Hubert Club is already moving in the matter, and has offered a 
handsome prize to the inventor who shall devise a plan for protecting 
birds against the fascination that takes hold of them when they find them- 
selves in the beams of the electric light. 
“ Two projects out of many submitted seem to give the required solu- 
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