LADY-BIRD TRANSFORMATIONS. 131 



To know what is the form then assumed, our readers would do 

 best to seek it on the above-named plants, where, after a pre- 

 vious glance at our figure, they will be at no loss to discover 

 the original. As for the history of our Lady-bird's life, in this 

 its second epoch, a few words suffice, because it is that in 

 which there is very little life about it. Having, in a few weeks, 

 gorged as a grub her fill of Aphides, she fixes herself by a sort 

 of natural glue, either to a stalk or to the under surface of the 

 leaf which has served the purpose of pasturing her devoured 

 flock. Thus secured from falling, she puts off the pupa skin 

 with the limbs which were requisite to obtain her prey ; and 

 then, in a form of outward inactivity, bides the time until by 

 inward working and expansion she has arrived at the perfection 

 of her nature. 



The Lady-bird mature is still, as in early life, a feeder on 

 Aphides, and she is for ever to be observed in the carnivorous 

 act of their destruction. It is said, however, that her voracity 

 decreases with her age, and that instead of pursuing her prey 

 (as when a grub) into the narrow folds of a leaf or retired 

 recesses of a bud, she is content to victimize the open feeders 

 within her more convenient reach. 



THE CAGED LADY-BIRDS. 



A FRAGMENT. 



HAVING given the natural history of the Lady-bird, we will 

 narrate a short " record of the heart," in which one of these 

 parti-coloured favourites of childhood happened to play a more 

 than usually important part. We picked up the story in the 

 course of a ramble for the purpose of collecting insects. 



One evening last June, as we were strolling in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Highgate, wholly occupied in examination of the 

 hedges beside us, and never thinking of a heavy thunder-cloud 

 behind, which hung threateningly over the sun-lit spires of the 



