In the Midwinter Forest 21 



a hungry little orange-colored grub. He begins 

 at once to feast on the inside of the bud. With 

 the grub gnawing at its heart the bud's growth 

 is checked. Instead of stretching out in a long 

 rod it swells into a knob, covered with over- 

 lapping scales, which should have been leaves. 

 So, instead of a long green spray there is a tiled 

 house, in which the grub lives a life of gluttony, 

 month after month, till spring returns again. Then 

 he eats his way through the wall of his nursery, 

 and comes forth transformed into a black fly. 



On the twigs of apple trees, here and there, we 

 may see what looks like a band of shellac. These 

 bands are the work of the apple tree moth. The 

 microscope would show that each band is com- 

 posed of hundreds of eggs, laid in a close girdle 

 completely around the twig, and then covered with 

 waterproof varnish. Every banded twig plucked 

 from the branch saves the tree from an unsightly 

 caterpillar web next summer. 



As the leaves fall in autumn from some of the 

 sweet-sapped trees — sugar maple, birch, and 

 linden — we may see that the bark has been bored 

 full of little pits. On one trunk there may be 

 dozens or even hundreds of them. They are the 

 " honey-pots " of the American yellow-bellied 

 woodpecker, or sapsucker. The bird loves the 

 sweet sap which oozes out of these holes, and 

 some insects love it too. As the yellow-bellied 

 woodpecker feeds upon insects as well as upon 



