singly but in packs, and when attacked he will call in the aid of such of his tribe as are within hearing of his cry. Several persons have run great risk of their lives from having been set upon by packs of these little creatures. Children have many times been killed by them. The Weasel does not have it all his own way, however, for he is pounced upon by hawks, owls, and kites ; not without defending himself, that is certain. It is reported that a kite was seen to mount into the air and, after a few seconds, to wheel irregularly and at length to fall to the ground dead; it was then found that it had carried off a Weasel, which had torn open the skin and divided the large blood-vessels under its captor's wing. The Weasel is killed as 'vermin' by all gamekeepers, on account of his partiality for eggs and for the young of all birds that he can set his teeth into; the former, on the other hand, has learned that the loss of a few eggs, laid abroad by straying hens, or even of a chicken or duckling now and then, is amply covered by the service done to him by the Weasel, in the destruction of numbers of rats and mice."

Bob, who had been rather inattentive to the latter part of Frank's remarks on Weasels, seeming to prefer the making of an exploration of the bank, in the neighbourhood of the spot where the Weasel had vanished from our sight, now came towards us, bringing with him a large Snail, and calling

66

Snail, snail, put out your horns!"

"Pick up a stick and put him upon it," said Frank, 66 and, no doubt, he'll soon look out of his house-door to see where he has got to."

Bob did as Frank suggested and in a very few seconds Mr. Snail came forth rearing his four horns.

"He is now looking about him," said Frank.

"Those black spots at the tips of his upper horns are his eyes. His mouth is just below the smaller horns and has a palate -furnished very likely with organs of taste ;-his upper jaw is horny, having at its edge a crescent-shaped tooth notched like a saw, an instrument which enables him

THE SNAIL.

to play havoc with all green gardenstuff. His tongue is also tipped with a hardened substance. The Snail is furnished with a com

plete shell as soon as it emerges from the egg. This tiny

shell is enlarged by the Snail to meet the requirement of its growing bulk; ring after ring is added, by means of a glutinous liquid ejected through the pores of the Snail's body, until the shell reaches its full dimensions-the original shell always remaining as the centre of the coil. He has no feet, as you see, but moves along by the aid of the muscular skins, placed one on either side of his body, which he extends or contracts at will; the gummy fluid which exudes from him is to prevent him from falling. A very cruel series of experiments were made to test the power of the Snail to reproduce parts of itself that had been cut away; but I shall only tell you that these experiments settled the point, and proved that he-in some cases, at least-is able to produce for himself, not only a lost horn, but an entirely new head with all its organs complete. But I see a little curiosity lying under that oak-tree."

FRANK PICKS UP AN OAK-LEAF, AND FINDS SOMETHING ON IT-BOB WARNS A LADY-BIRD THAT HER FAMILY IS IN PERIL FROM FIREWE ALL JOIN IN A GRAND FIELD-MOUSE HUNT, AND CHARLEY DECLINES TO PICK UP A WORM.

THE object referred to by Frank was an brown globe-like excrescence upon it.

one.

oak-leaf with a little He picked it up.

"I dare say that none of you know what this little ball is," he said, detaching it from the leaf. "It is a gall, the nest formed by an insect for the rearing of her young The mother Cynips, or Gall-Fly, lays an egg upon the leaf, and then punctures the leaf all about it, ejecting into the wound a drop of liquid of so highly irritating a character that it excites the juices of the leaf until ultimately one of these excrescences is formed. These galls are of many kinds, and are more or less valuable according to the trees upon which they have been produced. The greater part of the galls of commerce are produced on an oak which only grows to about six feet high, in Asia Minor; the best are those from which the grubs have not

succeeded in making their escape, and these furnish the black colour in the ink with which you write, and all the richest black dyes."

Bob's high ringing voice once more suddenly turned our attention in a new direction, by shouting:

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

Your house is on fire-your children at home!"

On the sleeve of his jacket a pretty Lady-Bird was folding her wings under their gay red and black-spotted

THE LADY-BIRD.

cases, and evidently not in the least alarmed at the timehonoured trick that was attempted to be put upon her. "Isn't she a beauty!" cried Ned. "Does she do any harm?"

"None that I am aware of," answered Frank. "So far is she from being harmful, she has the well-deserved reputation of being an extremely useful little creature. In this way: She lays her eggs in the midst of a swarm of those little green plant-lice which I dare say you have all of you seen, clustering on the leaves and stems of flowering plants; when these eggs are hatched, they produce grubs with six legs and voracious appetites, who immediately set to work to devour the plant-destroying Aphides, or lice, in the midst of which they have been born-seemingly for the express purpose. Some of these

grubs have been seen to seize upon plant-lice nearly as large as themselves, and devour them one after the other without in the least quelling their ferocious gluttony. Lady-Birds abound along the Southern Coast, and on one occasion the little watering-place of Southend, in Essex, was visited by a countless swarm, in which there were at least five species. For miles along the coast they were as numerous as bees at swarming-time; the hedges were filled with them, the roads were red with them, and untold millions of them perished in the sea. They had evidently been driven from the East, for the wind was at the time blowing strongly from that direction. On the same day, which was Friday, the thirteenth of August, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, Ramsgate, Margate, and Brighton, were visited in a similar manner."

As if Mistress Lady-Bird had only been waiting to hear the end of her own story related, she now opened her wing-cases, spread her black-edged pinions, and took her flight, Bob calling maliciously after her:

"Your house is on fire-your children at home!"

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"Be quiet, Bob!" said Frank; I've a notion that there are Field-Mice hereabout, and your shrill pipe will scare them all away, if there are any."

We scattered ourselves about the field, under Frank's direction and searched the grass. In a very little time a whoop of delight from Bob and Ned together, told that the game was found, and in a minute Frank had a beautiful red-brown little panting Field-Mouse in his hat, and peered at by four pairs of curious and admiring eyes.

"I'm sorry to say that this beautiful little creature is enormously destructive-and I am afraid has very little

K