“Then I shall proceed,” said Professor Ravenden, and turning to his manuscript he read: “Report on certain events noted by Willis Ravenden, F. R. S., Sc.D., at Montauk Point, Long Island, on the evening of September 18, 1902. “On the evening named I had set forth from Third House with the purpose of seeking a specimen of the _Catocala_. Besides my capturing net, a can of molasses and rum for an insect lure, and the poison jar, I carried, in pursuance of general agreement, a thirty-two-calibre revolver. Passing around the south end of the lake, I selected for my operations a patch of _Quercus ilicifolia_ several hundred feet beyond the western shore and perhaps a mile distant from my point of departure, and smeared the leaves with the adhesive mixture. Some success was rewarding my efforts, among other captives being fine specimens of the _Saturnia maia_ and the _Dryocampa imperialis_, when a cloud-bank obscured the moon, and the wind which had been blowing lightly from the north became capricious and gusty. Conditions such as these are unfavourable to the pursuit of the nocturnal _lepidoptero_. Moreover, the darkness was becoming very dense. Hastily closing and packing my net, I set out for home. As nearly as I can estimate it then was about 10 o’clock p. m. “Owing to the darkness and the irregularity of the ground, my progress was difficult. When I had almost reached, as I estimated, the shore of the lake, I stumbled and fell. As I regained my feet, a strange sound which appeared to come from above and a trifle to the northwest of me attracted my attention. It suggested the presence of some winged creature, although it resembled rather a crackling than a beating or flapping of pinions. It seemed to differ from the strange creaking which I had before noted when abroad at night, and which I at once recalled. Somewhat alarmed, I drew my revolver and cocked it. At this moment the wind, which had been dead from the north, veered in a sharp gust to the northwest. A rushing noise from the blackness above seemed to be drawing near me at a high speed, and as I braced myself for some assault, an object which I believe to have been very large, struck the ground with great violence a few rods, as I judged, to the west of me and came bounding over the earth in my direction. At the same time I discerned a faintly perceptible oily odour.