Hunting Birds at Night (also known as Bird's-nesters) struck me quite differently. It is a painting of an entirely different character and was Millet's last work. The scene is drawn of Millet's own childhood memories of bird hunters blinding large flocks of pigeons with torchlight and then clubbing them. Despite this grisly subject matter, the painting has an ecstatic quality and the light seems almost supernatural. Millet uses very different brushwork here, looser and softer, especially evident in the rendering of the birds. By painting each bird rather generally, rendering their shape rather than their actual characteristics, Millet communicated the vast size of this flock, and adds to the murkiness of the scene; they almost seem like clouds or waves emanating from the torchlight. One of Millet's greatest gifts was his ability to sympathize with his subjects and communicate their hardship. In this painting he has achieved the same feat, only it is the birds whose struggle is felt. As they flock toward their death, Millet painted a stunningly beautiful threnody for their luminous deaths.