6 SEPTEMBER 1940, Page 11

COUNTRY LIFE

THE extreme beauty of our Augustan nights has been enhanced, though disturbed, by the patterns of searchlights. The small units of men who direct these from many a quiet field have become gardeners, and now wish to become both astronomers and entomologists. What may well astonish them is the number of moths seen in the shaft of light and the height at which some of them fly. " The desire of the moth for the star " is a line with a new significance.