OAK-APHIS. 35 



Ant. Their stick and straw-capped cones scattered through 

 the woods, must be familiar to all wood-land walkers. With- 

 out, a mound of confusion, within they are a marvel of arrange- 

 ment. The conical coping which presents itself to our eye, is 

 indeed the roof, but may also be considered as the upper story, 

 or perhaps several, which contain within them various chambers, 

 one in the centre larger and loftier than the rest, with passages 

 of communication, besides others which lead to the exterior of 

 the nest. The outer entrances of these various avenues, at other 

 times open, are carefully barricaded, not only in winter, but in 

 rainy weather, and also of a night. 



Our villager's " many friends " of the old pollard, are 

 intended expressly, though not with reference to character, for 

 a family of the large brown Oak-Aphis, greatest of its tribe, 

 with a pipe or sucker of prodigious length, which, when not 

 employed in extraction of sweet juices from leaf and branch, is 

 carried under the body, passing upwards like a tail. 



,\f looli uol iff ofo 



