OAK-GALL-FLY. 



'3* 



the galls, but as they were puzzled to know how it produced 

 this casing of spit, when they got back to Norwich they went 

 into the library and found, in a number of Science Gossip, the 

 following information about it : 



" The larva?, as soon as it is hatched commences operations 

 on some juicy stem or leaf, no matter what, so it be sappy 

 enough ; thrusts in its long proboscis ; pumps up the sap ; blows 

 it off in small bubbles through a pipe in its tail, and so speedily 

 constructs for itself a cool, moist, translucent home. By and 



OAK-GALL-FLY. 



by the sap dries up, and the insect changes its form and becomes 

 winged." 



It was now getting dusk, and the gulls were flying low over 

 the meadows, hawking about like swallows. The boys went to 

 see what they were catching, and saw that they were feeding on 

 the ghost-moths which were hovering over the grass-tops with 

 that vibrating and ghost-like flight which is so peculiar to them. 

 Every country boy must know the ghost-moths which, large and 

 small, white and yellow, hover over the hay-fields in the month 



K 2 



