ns of the finery of the gravest
personages still exist on our academical robes of ceremony.
There is something inconsistent with the popish episcopal
character in the childish rhyme with which _Bishop Barnabee_ is
thrown up and dismissed when he happens to light on any one's
hand. Unluckily the words are not recollected, nor at present
recoverable; but the purport of them is to admonish him to fly
home, and take care of his wife and children, for that his house
in on fire. Perhaps, indeed, the rhyme has been fabricated long
since the name by some one who did not think of such niceties."

G.A.C.

Sir,--In the explanation of the term Bishop Barnaby, given by J.G., the
prefix "Bishop" seems yet to need elucidation. Why should it not have
arisen from the insect's garb? The full dress gown of the Oxford
D.D.--scarlet with black velvet sleeves--might easily have suggested the
idea of naming the little insect "Dr. Burn bug," and the transition is
easy to "Dr. Burnabee," or "Bishop Burnaby." These little insects, in
the winter, congregate by thousands in barns for their long slumber till
the reappearance of genial weather, and it is not impossible that, from
this circumstance, the country people may have designated them "Barn
bug," or "Barn bee."

L.B.L.

Sir,--I cannot inform LEGOUR why the lady-bird (the seven-spotted,
_Coccinella Septempunctata_, is the most common) is called in some
places "Bishop Barnaby." This little insect is sometimes erroneously
accused of destroying turnips and peas in its larva state; but, in
truth, both in the larva and perfect state it feeds exclusively on
aphides. I do not know that it visits dairies, and Tusser's "Bishop that
burneth," may allude to something else; still there appears some popular
connection of the _Coccinellidae_ with _cows_ as well as burning, for in
the West Riding of Yorkshire they are called _Cush Cow Ladies_; and in
the North Riding one of the children's rhymes anent them runs:--

"Dowdy-cow, dowdy-cow, ride away heame,
Thy[1] house is burnt, and thy bairns are tean,
And if thou means to save thy bairns
Take thy wings and flee away!"

The most mischievous urchins are afraid to hurt the dowdy-cow, believing
if they did evil would inevitably befall them. It is tenderly placed on
the palm of the hand--of a girl, if possible--and the above rhyme
recited thrice, during which it usually spreads its wings, and at the