shown by a little lady-bird beetle, which, after having been immersed twenty-four hours in spirits of wine, on being taken out actually flew away. "What is the meaning," asked Mary, "of the nursery rhyme about the lady-bird? Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home, Your house is on fire, and your children will burn?" Indeed, I cannot tell you. There are different versions of the old song. One runs thus: Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home; Your house is on fire, your children at home, All but one that lives under the stone,-- Fly thee home, lady-bird, ere it be gone. In Yorkshire and Lancashire it is-- Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly thy way home, Thy house is on fire, thy children all roam, Except little Nan, who sits in her pan, Weaving gold laces as fast as she can. The names of Lady-bird, Lady-cow, no doubt originated from the general reverence for this insect and its dedication to the Virgin Mary. In Scandinavia this little beetle is called "Our Lady's Key-maid," in Sweden "The Virgin Mary's Golden Hen." Similar reverence is paid in Germany, France, England, and Scotland. In Norfolk it is called Bishop Barnabee, and the young girls have the following rhyme, which they continue to recite to it placed on the palm of the hand, till it takes wing and flies away. "Bishop, Bishop Barnabee, Tell me when my wedding be; If if be to-morrow day, Take your wings and fly away! Fly to the East, fly to the West, Fly to him that I love best." The word barnabee or burnabee, or, as Southey writes it, burnie-bee, no doubt has reference to the burnished or polished wing cases of the insect. Let us now look out for the coots and water-hens, which love to dabble amongst the weeds of these pools, and to hide amongst the hedges and bulrushes that so thickly skirt them. See how rapidly the swifts or "Jack-squealers," as the country folks call them, are gliding by; you remember when we were noticing the swallows and martins that we thought of the swifts. Look at the beautiful scythe-like form of the wings; the tail, you see, is slightly forked; but the bird has the power of bringing the feathers together, so that sometimes you cannot see its cleft form. I generally notice swifts in the neighbourhood about the 5th of May; this year Mr. John Shaw tells me he saw some in Shrewsbury as early as the 23rd of April. Although they come to us the last of the swallow family, they leave us the soonest. By the middle of August most of the swifts will have left us.