130 THE LADY-BIRD. 



our childhood. A word or two, en passant, on Nursery 

 Rhymes, on that one at least which is pertinent to our subject 



" Lady-bird ! Lady-bird ! fly away home, 

 Your house is on fire, and your children alone !" 



Now, in reality, instead of flying to the rescue of her own 

 innocents, her business is most probably to murder and devour 

 a score of other innocents, clustered together on a hop or rose- 

 leaf; or, in other words, to make a luscious meal of Aphides or 

 Honey-dew Insects, of whom her Lady-birdship is exceedingly 

 fond fond as a wolf of a flock of sheep. 



Let us begin with the beginning of the Lady-bird's life, even 

 from its commencement in the egg-shell. The eggs are of a 

 bright yellow, small, flat, and oval ; and, laid close together 

 in patches of a score and upwards, are to be found throughout 

 the spring and summer, glued to a variety of leaves. It must 

 not be imagined, however, that the mother insect by whom 

 they are thus deposited is ever so regardless of the welfare of 

 her family as to commit it, while in embryo, to the barren 

 surface of the first leaf falling in her way. Carnivorous her- 

 self, she takes care that her children, when the sun wakes them 

 into life with similar but yet more devouring propensities than 

 her own, shall have abundance of living food for their exercise 

 conveniently at hand; and for this purpose she fails not to 

 select as their nursery a leaf, most frequently of rose-bush, hop, 

 or honeysuckle, but of what sort soever, one sure to be peopled 

 by, or closely contiguous to, the insect live-stock so essential to 

 their support. 



It is in this its earliest stage of grub or larva the most 

 voracious if not the most active of its life that the Coccinella 

 plays its most important part in the reduction of the Aphis 

 million, both in gardens and hop grounds, where the latter is 

 popularly known as " the Fly." 



The second shape which the Lady-bird puts on is that of the 

 pupa, correspondent to the aurelia or chrysalis of a Butterfly. 



