t is
thought by Mr. Gould to be really a nest, and intended to keep the
eggs off the damp ground. However, there is difference of opinion on
this point, and I reserve my own. We will see if we cannot find a
kingfisher's nest some time this summer. Now, May, what little plant
have you got hold of? "Indeed I don't know, papa, but it is a very
curious little plant; I gathered it at the bottom of that hedge bank."
Ah, I know it well, and a little favorite it is too; it is the
moschatell. You see it is about five inches high, with pale green
flowers and leaves; the flowers are arranged in heads of five each,
namely, four on the side, and one on the top; it has a delicate
musk-like odour, very pleasant and refreshing. Take a few specimens
home and put them in water with your primroses. Mamma, I know, is very
fond of the pretty little moschatell.

"Oh, papa," exclaimed Willy, "look at the bottom of this drain; what
is that strange-looking insect crawling slowly about at the bottom?" I
see; it is a water-scorpion, a very common insect in these drains on
the moors,--indeed, it is common everywhere; let us catch him and take
him home for examination. He is a queer-looking creature, with a small
head and pointed beak; his forearms are something like lobster's
claws; his prevailing colour blackish-brown, like the mud upon which
he crawls; his body is very flat, and ends in two long stick-like
projections; underneath these horny covers of the creature may be seen
his two wings. He is an aquatic murderer; inserting that pointed beak
into the body of some other insect, and holding his victim in his
lobster-like forearms--oh! fatal embrace--he sucks out the juices of
the struggling prey. Kirby and Spence say that some of the tribe of
insects to which the water-scorpion belongs are so savage that they
seem to love destruction for its own sake. A water-scorpion which was
put into a basin of water with several young tadpoles killed them all
without attempting to eat one. The tail projections, I ought to tell
you, are connected with the insect's breathing; they are protruded out
of the water and conduct the air to the spiracles at the end of the
body, about which I must tell you more at another time. The eggs of
the water-scorpion I have frequently found; they are of an oval form,
with seven long hair-like projections at one end. But it is time to go
home, our walk to-day is over; let us look forward to another holiday
and another country