Ladybird

“ It is possible, but it is also very extraordinary. The Ladybird has rarely been noted as a devotee of travel. She seems to us a very stay-at-home creature when we see her butchering the Green-fly on our rose-trees and the Black-fly on our beans; and yet, with her short wings, she holds plenary assemblies, in immense numbers, on the summit of Mont Ventoux, where the Martin himself ascends only at moments of violent energy. Why these meetings at such altitudes? What can be the reason of this predilection for blocks of masonry? ”

“ Mannhardt was of opinion that the ladybird rhyme originated as a charm intended to speed the sun across the dangers of sunset, that is, the "house on fire" or welkin of the West, which [Pg 96] is set aglow at sundown. Throughout the East a prayer is still uttered to the setting sun in order to ensure its safe return on the morrow.
The ladybird is known by a variety of names both in England and abroad. Among ourselves it is identified as a cow, a bird, or a bee, while the lady of our rhymes reappears as Mary in the German expression Marienkäfer. ”

“ Both the young and the parents are very helpful to the garden because they eat harmful insects—scale insects and aphids or green plant lice.
One species of ladybird which the California fruit growers brought from Australia has been the means of exterminating a scale insect very injurious to the orange and lemon trees of the Western coast. The larva of the ladybird turns into a hard encased pupa, and later into a full-grown ladybird insect.
“My,” exclaimed Mary Frances, “another garden friend! Why, Billy, one is never alone in the garden. There are always lots of friends about.” ”

“ LADYBIRD vs. LAVINIA
One day, Ladybird, watching from her window, saw a hack drive up to Primrose Hall. A middle-aged gentleman got out.
“Mr. William H. Ward,” she said to herself, serenely.
Next appeared a golden-haired, blue-eyed girl of about fourteen.
“Lavinia Flint!” said Ladybird; and putting her little black head down on Cloppy’s fat back, she cried as if her heart would break.
“We ought to be ashamed of ourselves, you and I, Clops,” she said, “because, if that isn’t the real Lavinia, there’s no use in our making a fuss ”

“ Nor would the pretty markings on the back of the ladybird, for there are many more brilliant and showy insects; and the affection and kindly treatment which it receives, even from children, can hardly be explained, save as an instinct implanted by nature in the human breast, as a protection for one of his greatest friends and allies. Next, perhaps, to the ichneumon, the ladybird is the most valuable of all insects to man. ”

“ Rhymes [Pg 91] of this kind are entirely without foreign parallels. On the other hand, calls, such as those addressed to the ladybird and the snail, and riddle-rhymes, such as that on Humpty Dumpty, have numerous and close parallels half across Europe.
The ladybird is the representative among ourselves of a large class of insects which were associated with the movement of the sun from the earliest times. The association goes back to the kheper or chafer of ancient Egypt, which has the habit of rolling along the ball that contains its eggs. ”

“ Ladybirds are pretty little beetles, well known to every one, often of a brilliant red or yellow color, with black, red, white, or yellow spots, the number and distribution of which are characteristic of the different species. ”

“ Hodmadod, hodmadod, pull out your horns, Here comes a beggarman to cut off your corns (Suf.) . Children in Northumberland call a scarlet ladybird a sodger. When they have caught one [Pg 311] they throw it up in the air and say: Reed, reed sodger, fly away, And make the morn a sunny day. But the commonest rhyme addressed to a ladybird is: Cowlady, cowlady, hie thee way whum! Thy haase is afire, thy childer all gone, All but poor Nancy set under a pan, Wavin’ gold lace as fast as she can (Yks.) . There are versions of this rhyme in various dialects. ”

“ 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. ”

“ No harm would I do thee, no foeman is near,
I only would gaze on thy beauties so dear,
Those beautiful winglets beside thee.
Lady-bird! lady-bird! fly away home!
Thy house is a-fire, thy children will roam,
List! list to their cry and bewailing!
The pitiless spider is weaving their doom,
Then lady-bird! lady-bird! fly away home! ”

“ The species we are looking at is the "seven-spotted lady-bird;" there is another very common kind, whose scarlet wing-cases have one black spot on the centre of each. This species is subject to considerable variety; it is called the "two-spotted lady-bird." ”

“ Pussy-Cat said Mew, mew mew,—and Robin flew away.
Sing a song of sixpence, a bag full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie:
When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing;
And wasn't this a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in the parlour, counting out his money;
The queen was in the kitchen, eating bread and honey;
The maid was in the garden, hanging out the clothes,
There came a little blackbird and nipt off her nose.
Lady-bird, Lady-bird
Fly away home,
Your house is on fire,
Your children will burn. ”

“ Green. "There he is on that oleander, and there's his mate still busy with her household duties, carrying straw for her nest. It must be hard to be a female bird and not to be able to pour forth your soul in song, no matter how bursting you are with the joy of living. I always thought that it was unfair. No doubt that little newlywed mocking-bird feels as deeply as the male, but all she can do to show it is just drag straw and hairs and build and build, and then sit patiently on her eggs, and then teach the little ones to fly after she has worn herself to skin and bone grubbing worms for them. ”

“ And at what other time does he go through those extraordinary, what one might call, gestures to the female; he does all he can to speak? At times, when he twists his neck round and turns his head upward, he appears to be imploring heaven to help him.
I could mention many similar cases, but these, I think, are sufficient to prove that the whole powers of the bird's body and mind are concentrated solely on the possession of a female. This being so, it appears to me to be highly improbable that this action can in any way refer directly to the construction of the nest. ”

“ A few days after the arrival of the male birds, the females make their appearance, and the love season at once commences. The male pays his addresses to the female with a degree of pomposity only equalled by the Tame Pigeon. The female, perched lengthwise on a branch, appears coy and silent, whilst the male flies around her, alights in front of her, and with drooping wings and expanded tail advances quickly, singing with great impetuosity. ”

“ A female will jump up and be immediately pursued by two to five males, and as they all twist about, in and out, twittering all the time, the alternate flashing of their reddish backs and black lower parts seems like the signals of the telegraphic code. The males appear never to catch the females, but to try to keep as close to them as possible. When they alight again in the flock whence they started they at once resume feeding without further display. The thrilling song of this dainty bird is delivered while hovering with quivering wing beats in mid-air. ”

“ Every shotgun was aimed at them and everybody feasted on pigeon pies, and not a few of the settlers feasted also on the beauty of the wonderful birds. The breast of the male is a fine rosy red, the lower part of the neck behind and along the sides changing from the red of the breast to gold, emerald green and rich crimson. The general color of the upper parts is grayish blue, the under parts white. The extreme length of the bird is about seventeen inches; the finely modeled slender tail about eight inches, and extent of wings twenty-four inches. The females are scarcely less beautiful. ”

“ The female is now discovered to be entirely destitute of all the fine blue colours, both pale and dark, by which the male is adorned, except that there is a very narrow circle of azure round each eye, apparently on the skin only: all the upper feathers consist of shades of brown, and the whole throat and belly is pure white. Except from the shape and size, this bird would not be suspected at first sight to belong to the same species as the male: the epithet of superb applies very ill to the female. ”

“ MY wife once made up her mind that she wanted a bird. She had, she told me, many reasons for wanting one. One was that the landlady’s son was apprenticed to a bird-cage maker, and had promised to use all his influence with his employer — who, the landlady told my wife, was a very civil man — to get us a cage cheap. Another reason for having a bird was that the old groundsel man at the corner asked her every day if she would not buy a penn’orth of the weed for her dear little birds, and that she felt an impostor (inasmuch as she had no bird) every time she met the groundsel man. ”

“ There is another you may often find; it is small and yellow, with eleven spots on each wing-cover. This is called the "twenty-two-spotted lady-bird;" it is an elegant little creature. It is interesting to note how the observation of some particular animal has led naturalists to the choice of their favorite study. Mr. Gould tells us that his first inclination to the study of birds arose from his father having once lifted him up to peep into a hedge-warbler's nest. His admiration for the beautiful blue eggs led him to devote his time to ornithology, or the study of birds. ”

“ The female is a timid, unoffending bird, as peaceful in her demeanour as quiet in her garb. The tints of her plumage, far less gaudy than in the male, are a protection to her in the nesting season, [Pg 222] as being less likely to attract the notice either of poachers or vermin. Indeed, were she always to lie close, her nest would not be easily discovered, for the colour of her feathers so closely resembles that of withered leaves, that she is, when sitting, less conspicuous than her uncovered eggs would be. ”

“ When the young man's black wife learned that her husband had found the beautiful maiden again after all these years she confessed her deceit and soon died. The young man married the beautiful maiden who was still just as beautiful as she was the first time he saw her. They were very happy together but the wife never forgot about the time she had been a pigeon.
Up to that time pigeons had been wild birds who built their nests in the deep forest. The wife often wished that they would build their nests in her beautiful garden so she had little bird houses built and set up there. ”

“ Lady-birds cannot walk well, so they are easily captured, but they can fly. There are black lady-birds with red or yellow spots, too. Do you know why you can find them on rose bushes and fruit trees? They eat those little soft green plant lice, or aphides, that swarm on certain plants. In England gardeners hunt for these neat insects to put into flower gardens, orchards and hop fields. If they couldn't get these little friends in any other way, very likely they'd be willing to pay for them. ”

“ Hour after hour I have seen the mother of a brood of blue grossbeaks pass from the nearest meadow to the tree that held her nest, with a cricket or grasshopper in her bill, while her better-dressed half was singing serenely on a distant tree or pursuing his pleasure amid the branches.
Yet among the majority of our song birds, the male is most conspicuous both by his color and manners and by his song, and is to that extent a shield to the female. It is thought that the female is humbler clad for her better concealment during incubation. ”

“ In order to show off our best points before the lady-birds, off we all go to some secluded spot, form a circle or ring, in which each male bird in turn performs his showing off act. We skip, flap our wings, curve our necks, and prance around, the lady-birds expressing their approval by deep croaks, something like a bull-frog's, while the envious cocks keep up a running fire of remarks in the rasping tones of a horse-fiddle. ”

“ There is a Netherlandish tradition that to see Lady-birds forebodes good luck;17 and in England it is held extremely unlucky to destroy these insects. Persons killing them, it is thought, will infallibly, within the course of the year, break a bone, or meet with some other dreadful misfortune.18
In England, the children are accustomed to throw the Lady-bird into the air, singing at the same time,—
Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home ”

“ But when one afterwards sees two birds at the nest—male and female beyond a doubt—mutually or alternately performing some portion of these antics, though without the primary prostration, [13] what is one to think then? In such cases as these, where the sexes are not to be distinguished except by dissection, or having the bird in one's hands, we cannot be sure that it is always the male we see displaying to the female, and never the female to the male. ”