I 3 4 THOSE OTHER ANIMALS. 



many Catholic pictures depicted as pierced to the heart with 

 seven swords, the seven black spots on the red ladybird are 

 considered as typical of those wounds, the form of the little 

 creature being not unlike that of a heart. 



Seeing the extreme value of the ladybird's assistance as 

 a destroyer of the green fly, it has more than once been 

 seriously proposed to introduce breeding establishments for 

 its multiplication ; and there can be no doubt, were this 

 practicable, agriculturists, and especially hop-growers, whose 

 bines are cruelly ravaged by the green fly, would benefit 

 vastly. The silkworm is bred in enormous quantities, and 

 there seems no reason why the ladybird should be less 

 susceptible of cultivation, if it could but be taught to lay 

 aside its habits of restlessness. Unfortunately, the ladybird 

 is a frequent and rapid traveller, and the hop-grower would 

 have no assurance that his neighbour's gardens would not 

 benefit more than his own by his labours in breeding it. 

 Few beetles take so readily to the wing ; it runs fast, too, on 

 the little legs packed so snugly away under the flat side of 

 its hemisphere. Still, as the flea can be taught not to jump, 

 it ought to be possible to restrain the ladybird from flying ; 

 and, in that case, if kept amply supplied with its favourite 

 food, it might be content to breed in captivity, and the 

 management of such an establishment would be a source of 

 great interest and amusement to children. Owing, perhaps, 

 to its immunity from cruel treatment at the hands of man, 

 the ladybird exhibits no fear whatever of him. While the 

 spider will rush to a hiding-place, the caterpillar drop itself 

 from a twig, and the flea endeavour to escape by the aid of 

 its prodigious activity from the touch of man, the ladybird 

 will run unconcernedly across his hand, and, indeed, appears 



