last word flies away. A collection of nursery rhymes relating to insects
would, I think, be useful.

W.G.M.J. BARKER.

[Footnote 1: _Thy_ is pronounced as _thee_.]

[We have received many other communications respecting the
epithet of this insect--so great a favourite with children.
ALICUI and several other correspondents incline to L.B.L.'s
opinion that it takes its name from a fancied resemblance of its
bright wing-cases to the episcopal cope or chasuble. J.T.
reminds us that St. Barnabas has been distinguished of old by
the title of _bright_, as in the old proverbial distich intended
to mark the day of his festival according to the Old Style (21st
June):--

"Barnaby bright!
The longest day and the shortest night."

While F.E. furnishes us with another and happier version of the
Norfolk popular rhyme:--

"Bishop, Bishop Barnabee,
Tell me when _my_ wedding be;
If it be to-morrow day,
Take your wings and fly away!
_Fly to the east, fly to the west_,
_Fly to them that I love best_!"

The name which this pretty insect bears in the various languages
of Europe is clearly mythic. In this, as in other cases, the
Virgin has supplanted Freya; so that _Freyjuhaena_ and
_Frouehenge_ have been changed into _Marienvoglein_, which
corresponds with _Our Lady's Bird_. There, can, therefore, be
little doubt that the esteem with which the lady-bird, or Our
Lady's cow, is still regarded, is a relic of the ancient cult.]

* * * * *

MATHEMATICAL ARCHAEOLOGY.

Sir,--I cannot gather from your "Notes" that scientific archaeology is
included in your plan, nor yet, on the other hand, any indications of
its exclusion. Science, however, and especially mathematical science,
has its archaeology; and many doubtful points of great importance are
amongst the "vexed questions" that can only be cleared up by
_documentary evidence_. That evidence is more likely to be found mixed
up amongst the masses of papers belonging to systematic collectors than
amongst the papers of mere mathematicians--amongst men who never destroy
a paper because they have no present use for it, or because the subject
does not come within the range of their researches, than amongst men who
value nothing but a "new theorem" or "an improved solution."

As a general rule I have always habituate