fix its home and rear its young ones close to the windows of a house.

It is curious that the Martins will often take a fancy to one side of a house and place rows of their nests under the eaves on that side, while they neglect altogether other sides which seem equally suitable. They commonly avoid the south side, their instinct most likely teaching them that the heat of the mid-day sun might crack and loosen the mud-walls of their nests.

A story is told of a lazy Sparrow who had taken possession of a Martin's house, and would not leave it; and it is said that the Martins of the neighbourhood gathered together and brought each a supply of clay in their beaks, with which they stopped up the opening of the nest while the Sparrow was inside, thus turning his stolen house into a tomb.

When the Martins are going to leave for a warmer clime, they gather together for several days before they start, and seem to be arranging the way in which to carry out their migration.

The Martin is a pretty bird, from the contrast there is between the tints of its feathers; the head and upper part of its body are glossy blue-black, except the quill-feathers of the wings and tail, which are dark as soot, while the upper tail-coverts are snowy white. Its legs and toes are spread over with tiny white feathers; its beak is black and its eyes brown ; its length is a little more than five inches.

THE LONDON STREET FLOWER

GIRL.

By a London Clergyman. AT this sweet summer season of the A year Londoners begin to have a hankering after green fields, and even the most loyal "cockneys” long, for once, to get out of the sound of “Bow Bells.” Our streets are hot and dusty, and anything which reminds us of hedgerows and gardens is welcomed with eagerness. It is at this time that the “flower girls” begin to ply their trade in our busy streets, and to give us such a slight glimpse of the beauties of the flower-garden as can be crammed into their baskets.

Perhaps, of all the street-traders of London, there is no class the number of which it is so difficult to find out. It is, of course, only a summer business ; and so most of the girls who make their living by it, have to find other means of earning money during the winter months. The trade begins with the earliest primroses and violets, but only then to a very limited extent. As the more showy and cheaper flowers become abundant, our streets perfectly swarm with girls who vend them. It has been said that there are about four hundred employed in this trade in our streets, but it is very probable that the number has largely increased since Mr. Mayhew made ihis calculation. Any attempt to fix the number must be only a guess, for nearly every daughter of a “costermonger," who has an old basket at command and a few pence to spare, can start herself in this line of business. One girl said the other day, speaking of the neighbourhood of Islington alone, that there might be between three and four dozen girls engaged in the sale of flowers, and on Sundays even a greater number. This is, of course, not counting the dealers in more choice and important plants, who carry the baskets on their

It is said that the appearance of volcanic action may be produced by placing a shallow iron vessel, filled with sand and water, on a stove sufficiently hot to make the mixture boil. Craters will soon be thrown up on the surface, which will be very like those that are seen on the moon's surface when looked at through a telescope.

heads, and act as public benefactors by the delightful perfume which they diffuse around. Under the name of “flower girls” should simply be counted those who in the spring and summer months gain a livelihood by the sale of bunches of cut flowers in the streets. These flowers are bought by the girls in the early morning at Covent Garden and Farringdon Markets, and brought home by them in large baskets. It is very amusing to see them sometimes arranging them in the course of the day, and evidently taking some pride in their work, as their fingers deftly tie up the smallest number of flowers which their strict sense of justice will permit them to offer to purchasers for a halfpenny. The flowers, of course, are of the very commonest description. At this season wall-flowers are the staple of the street-market, but many of the girls show much taste in the manner in which they group their flowers together, so as to make bunches at once fragrant and effective. The writer was informed, the other day, by a girl—one of the poorest even of her own class—that her profits, and the average profits of her companions, amounted to about fortr shillings aweek. Therefore, when it is taken into consideration that the flower trade seldom supports a family, but is undertaken as an extra branch of “costermongering,” it can scarcely be said that the flower girls belong to the destitute classes. Their homes, indeed, like the homes of most of the “costers,” are not remarkable for cleanliness and for the comfort of their sleepingquarters; but as far as food and the necessaries of life are concerned, they can scarcely be said to be in want. Two or three features of these girls' character may be mentioned. They are very fond of finery. Those flat wheelbarrows which stand in the street for the sale of the cheapest and roughest trinkets, find constant customers in them. It is not uncommon to see a

girl who considers a bonnet an unnecessary addition to the toilet, and who does not seem to care much about shoes, take the greatest delight in a medal hung round her neck by a string of beads. As a class these girls are extremely ignorant. Few can read, and fewer still can write, but they often manifest the greatest desire to learn, and can, with a little wise and kind treatment, be brought both to Sunday school and church. The greatest obstacle to a religious influence is to be found in the extensive Sunday street-trading in flowers. The parks and great thoroughfares are almost turned into flowermarkets, and the holiday-seekers like a posy for their button-holes. Until this evil is in some degree lessened, it will be very difficult to do very much for the religious improvement of these girls. Still there are bright and hopeful points in their character. They have a rough and ready kind of honesty among them, and the lowest and filthiest court will hold in universal execration the boy or girl who has stolen a halfpenny from the barrow of another. “Please, teacher, she stole a halfpenny,” is the brand which costermonger justice attaches to the criminal who has so outraged the laws of their community. The Irish girls are mostly Roman Catholics. What, then, must be our conclusions from these particulars about the flower girls of London It will not have been without its purpose to have written these words, if it teaches some of our young readers to think more kindly of those who have had but few opportunities of instruction, and to breathe a prayer that in God's good time the all-healing influence of the gospel of peace may be more fully extended to them, and that those also who have hitherto been regarded as noxious weeds, cumbering the earth, may blossom as flowers in our Heavenly Father's garden.