Chicken of St. Nicholas (The).

So the Piedmontese call the ladybird, or little red beetle with spots of black, called by the Russians “God’s little cow,” and by the Germans, “God’s little horse” sent as a messenger of love.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.