that it did not lie within the influence of St. Patrick, their country's patron and guardian."

"That was a clever trick," said Harry; "which country was it thought of doing that?"

"I am not quite certain, it may have been the Scotch, who are a very shrewd people."

Harry, however, was a thorough Englishman, and was unwilling that even the Scotch should have the whole credit; hence, as he saw no way out of the difficulty, he at length consented that the honour should be equally divided; although

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99B, Cheapside, February 1st, 1866. Y DEAR FRED, -I am delighted to find that my hasty hints have had the effect of "stirring you up," still more so that they promise to convert you into an amateur naturalist. You say, "I could not have imagined that there was so much to be seen. This is just the experience of every one who has set himself to observe any of the Creator's handiwork; and it is finely illustrated in the case of Lyonnet, who spent a large part of his life in the study of a single common caterpillar, as Huber did in the study of the honey-bee.

Let me endeavour to answer some of your queries, and add thereto some hints for February.

The shy birds which you saw hopping about were Fieldfares, birds of the thrush tribe, which spend the

winter with us, and depart in spring to Norway and Sweden, where they build their nests in large trees, and rear their young. Many other birds, which have made a similar stay with us, now quit our shores;-here are the names of a few, -Barnacle goose, Goosander, Velvet, Black, and Eider ducks, Sea Curlew, Golden Plover, Stock dove, Mountain finch, Siskin. But as yet we have no regular arrivals. You must wait a little longer; but if the month is fine and warm keep a sharp look out towards its close.

One of your mosses, No. 1, is a hair-moss (Polytrichum). No. 2 is a Hypnum. These beautiful little plants, though small, and therefore so often overlooked or despised, are full of evidences of creative power and wisdom. If you wish for some useful hints on the best mode of collecting them, you may get 'No. 6 of Recreative Science (published by

Groombridge, price 8d.), or consult Hardwicke's Science Gossip for April, 1865, 4d. monthly.

Thanks for the dried plants; you have really done them excellently. The great points are to lay them out on the blotting paper naturally, and then to dry them thoroughly. Bricks done up in brown paper or calico make a very good press, but a couple of boards, with screws and nuts at the corners, are neater and less cumbersome. You are right in supposing that the red dead-nettle is a different plant from the stinging-nettle. They are of totally different tribes, have different properties, and are specially unlike in the flowers. So much for popular names! All labiate or lipped plants (to which order the deadnettle belongs) have, you will find, square stems as well as a cuplike flower of peculiar form. Your other plants are the hawkweed (Hiracium, -yellow), unusually early; and the common chickweed (Stellaria) which flowers nearly "all the year round." | The feathered seeds of the groundsel, like those of the dandelion, are beautiful microscopic objects, -a point seldom thought of by the young folks who blow them away to tell what o'clock it is.

You have by this time discovered, no doubt, that spring is indeed coming, and nature slowly awaking from her wintry slumber. The voices of birds grow louder and more numerous. The song of the skylark, springing from earth toward heaven, mingles with the warbling of the thrush, and the quieter notes of the goldfinch, yellow-bunting, and chaffinch. The raven and the housesparrow will now soon be building their nests. The crossbill will exer

cise his doubly-hooked beak in extracting the seeds from the pinecones, and "the wood-pecker tapping the hollow beech-tree," will let you know his whereabouts by his loud and singular cry. More than one species of owl will be heard at night in thick clumps of trees. If

Be now on the watch for the first butterfly, the Brimstone (!), so called from his sulphur coloured wings, which make him a conspicuous mark for young collectors. Perhaps this pretty insect is hardly entitled to be called the first, for the small Tortoiseshell butterfly, the Painted Lady, and the Peacock's Eye have been seen flitting to and fro even on a bright January day. Still the brimstone is a very early as well a very pretty insect. The first moth, the Spring Usher, may also perhaps be started, if you hunt a little in the wood at the end of my favourite lane. You must understand that these early insects are early this year because they were late in 1865. I mean that they were hatched too late in the season to have time to provide for the continuance of the race.

as

Such insects fall into a winter sleep, like that of the dormouse, hedgehog, or bats, and revive with the returning spring, A warm winter's day will not unfrequently bring them from their hiding-places for a time. But most insects pass the winter in the chrysalis or pupa state, in which condition the food which sustained them as caterpillars is no longer required. Pupa hunting is, therefore, a source of occupation in cold weather, but it needs sharp eyes and a good stock of patience and perseverance. But few caterpillars are as yet to be found. Those