Porcelain buttons were invented by Mr. R. Prosser, of Birmingham, who, in conjunction with the celebrated firm of Minter and Co., made them in large quantities in the potteries, about the year 1840. They were, however, soon driven from the market by French manufacturers, who sold a great gross--that is, twelve gross, each of twelve dozen--for the ridiculously small sum of elevenpence. Glass buttons are made by heating canes of glass and pinching them from the end with pliers, which at the same time answer the purpose of a die. They are sold very cheaply, as low as twopence a gross, but it is scarcely possible for any English firm to compete with Bohemia in their production. Mother-o'-pearl buttons are made out of pearl shells which have been imported from the coasts of Macassar, Manilla, Bombay, the archipelago of the Pacific, the Bay of Panama, and a few other places. Their market value is not always the same. At the present time it ranges from L8 to L10 per hundredweight. The blanks are cut out of the shells by a steel tubular cutter, similar to that used in cutting the vegetable ivory. As the cutter works its way through a shell, small cylinders of pearl are disconnected, which are reduced in thickness by splitting into discs, a little thicker than the button is required to be when finished. These blanks are finished singly in a turning lathe, by being placed in a suitable chuck, and having a steel tool applied to its face for producing the rim and depression in the centre. They are then passed on to another lathe, where the holes are drilled, and afterwards to another, where they are polished by friction and a mixture of rotten-stone and soft soap. The best white buttons are those which are made from Macassar shells, and the best black from shells of the archipelago of the Pacific. The latter are the dearest, in consequence of the black shells not being so plentiful as those of lighter shades. Some few years since the consumption of mother-o'-pearl shells in Birmingham amounted to nearly one thousand tons annually; the failure of the fisheries in Central America has, however, reduced it to a little more than a third, or about three hundred tons a year. Thimbles are made by stamping, and afterwards turning in a lathe, the indentations being produced by a suitable instrument. On the Continent the operatives make them with punches in as many as five different mandrils. Scissors, bodkins, etc., have nothing connected with their manufacture which calls for any special notice. Although, as in previous papers, I have conducted my readers in paths not usual to girls and young women, I hope that my description of button-making will interest a considerable number, and teach them to think more of buttons and how they are made and by whom made than they have ever done before. W. W. B. BITS ABOUT ANIMALS. A SAGACIOUS COLT.