Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1896-11-11

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car, Trinidad and Other Places That BE-
come Phosphorescent at Will.
A belated sportsman returning from
:, a day. sport found himself late in the
evening on the edge Of a fiat or marsh
which bordered the path. The moon had
not risen, and the darkness was so in
tense that he was obliged to move slowly
and carefully. AS he walked along, gun
on shoulder, he thought he saw num-
Der of lights, some moving, others sta
tionary. AS they were in the river bed,
he knew that they could not be lanterns,
and for some time he was puzzled; but
being of an inquisitive mind lie walked
down to the water to investigate. As
the stream was slow running, shallow
one, he had no difficulty in wading in,
and soon convinced himself that the
lights were not carried by men, and
were either ignes fatui or from some
cause unknown. To settle the apparent
mystery he crept as close as he could,
took careful aim and fred. At the dis
charge the lights disappeared; but, keep
ing his eye on the spot where they had
been he walked quickly to it, and
found, to his amazement, a night heron,
upon whose breast cleaned, the mysteri-
GUS light The sportsman told me Of
this incident, and, while had often
heard of the light on the heron's breast,
never before could find any one who
had personally witnessed the phenome-
non; consequently propounded numer-
GUS questions. The observer saw the
light distinctly; first, at a distance of
at least SO yards, Or $50 feet There
were three lights upon each bird-one
upon each side between the hips and
tail and one upon the breast. He saw
the lights of at least four individuals,
and was SO interested that he observed
them all carefully, and as to their in
tensity stated to me that each light was
the equivalent Of two candles, so that
when he aimed he could see the gun
sight against it.
As to whether the bird had control of
the light, he believed that it did, as he
saw the lights open and shut several
times as he craw]ed toward the bird,
and he stopped when the light disap-
peared and -crept on when it came
again. The light did not endure long
after the bird was shot, fading away
almost Immediately. In color the light
was white and reminded him of phos-
phorescent wood.
Stories of luminous birds have been |
related by sportsmen occasionally, but,
SO far as I know, exact facts and data
have never before been obtained on this
most interesting and somewhat sensa-
tional subject. A friend in Florida told
me that he had distinctly seen a light |
moving about in flock of cranes at |
night and became satisfied that the
light was upon the breast Ct a bird. |
Another friend informed me that on en-
tering heron rookery at night he had
distinctly observed lights moving about
among the birds.
That herons have peculiar possible
light producing apparatus is we'll
known. These are called powder down
patches and can be found by turning up
the long feathers on the heron's breast,
where will be found a patch Of yellow,
greasy material that sometimes drops
off or fills the feathers in the form Of
yellow powder. This powder is pro-
duced by the evident decomposition of
the small feathers, producing just such
a substance as one might expect would
become phosphorescent, as there is little
doubt that it does.
The cranes and herons are not the
only birds having these oily lamps, if SO !,
we may term them. A Madagascar bird,
called kirumbo, has a large patch on
each side Of. the rump. The bitterns
have two pairs of patches, the true her
ons three, while the curious boat bills
have eight, which, if at times all lu-
'minous, would give the bird most
conspicuous, not to say spectral. appear
ance at night.
Some years ago party of explorers
entered large cave OH the island of
Trinidad that had hitherto been consid-
they found it filed with birds which
darted about in the dark in such num-
bers that they struck the explorers and
rendered their passage not merely dis
agreeable, but dangerous. The birds
proved to be night hawks. known as oil
birds, and in great demand for the oil
they contain, and it is barely possible
that these birds are also light givers.
The powder down patches of the oil
bird are upon each side of the rump.
AS to the use Of such lights to bird
there has been much conjecture, but it
is thought that it may be lure to at
tract fishes. Thus it is well known that
fishes and various marine animals are
attracted by light, and heron standing
in the water, the light from
its breast, if equal to two candles,
would be plainly seen for considerable :
distance by various kinds Of fishes, who
would undoubtedly approach within the
reach of the eagle eye and sharp bill of
the heron, and so fall victims to their
curiosity. If this is a true solving Of the
mystery it is one Of the most remark
able provisions of nature.
There is hardly a group Of animals
that does not include some light givers
Of great beauty; but it is not generally
known that some of the higher animals
also produce light at times. Renninger,
the naturalist, whose studies and obser-
vations of Paraguay are well known,
tells a most remarkable story of his ex-
perience with the monkey known as
Nyctipithithecus trivirigatus. He was
in complete darkness when he observed
the phenomenon, which was phos-
phorescent light cleaning from the eyes
Of the animal; not the light which ap-
pears in the eye of a cat, bun shafts of
light which were not
only distinctly visible, but illuminated
objects distance of six inches from the
eyes, -Philadelphi Times.
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