394 A Handful of “ Nuces Zoological [July, 
far from being attracted by decomposing animal matter, it 
will eat nothing which has the slightest taint. 
Fish are often caught from a boat carrying torches. The 
fishes sometimes leap on board, or else are attracted suffi- 
ciently near to be speared or captured with a landing-net or 
by hand. 
Certain Mammalia, such as deer, are sometimes — accord- 
ing to Dr. Beard — shot in the night by the aid of a strong 
light fixed on the hat of the hunter, or in the bow of a boat 
which is pulled along the shore of a woodland river. Says 
Dr. Beard, “ The conditions for success in this sport are a 
light boat with boatmen in the stern who pull in a noiseless 
manner: the hunter in the bow of the boat must also keep 
perfectly still, holding himself in position to be in readiness 
to shoot whenever the deer at the water’s edge becomes 
dazed by the light. Other animals are sometimes hunted in 
the same way.” 
The attempts at explaining this attraction of light have, 
so far, not been too happy. The propensity to rush into a 
fire is so manifestly to the disadvantage of the animals con- 
cerned that the “ instinCt ” abracadabra has not here been 
tried. Some naturalists have suggested that the moth takes 
the flame of the lamp for an opening through which it may 
escape into the light. But moths and noCturnal inseCts 
generally are quite at home in the dark, and remain during 
the day dormant. Why should they seek to escape into 
what they otherwise avoid ? 
Another suggestion, on the attempted verification of which 
I have spent no little time, is this : — All flowers are in the 
night phosphorescent to the delicate vision of inseCts, who 
consequently where they see light expeCt to find honey. 
Notwithstanding the flaw in this hypothesis, that many in- 
sects and birds which are attracted by a light do not feed 
upon honey or pollen, I have tested it experimentally by 
trying the effects of phosphorescent light upon inseCts, and 
by endeavouring to prove whether flowers generally, after 
exposure to sunshine, became phosphorescent during dark- 
ness. In neither respeCt were the results decisive. Hence 
it is satisfactory to find the light-seeking of noCturnal birds, 
fishes, and inseCts accounted for on a simple principle which 
applies to all cases. 
There are, it must be remembered, other noCturnal animals 
upon which a light aCts in a different manner. Instead of 
being attracted, they are put to flight. The flame is recog- 
nised as something unusual and to be avoided, but it does 
not daze and bewilder. This is the case with most of the 
