A MARCH RAMBLE. 23 



could not yet find a plentiful supply of eggs and 

 young for his hungry maw. 



At noon not a cloud is seen, and the sky is of 

 the deepest blue. Sharply outlined against it, at 

 this point of Aosion, are the gray branches of 

 the hard-wood trees, marking the dome with aU 

 kinds of angles, scrawls, and curves, showing how 

 from the shoots they have struggled in every con- 

 ceivable direction to get the light. 



The southern slope of the hill along which I 

 walk, where the snow is melting fast, and the 

 tiny rills, capillaries in the great water-shed system, 

 trembling and pulsating in the light, is flecked and 

 dappled with white and different shades of brown, 

 and tiny spots of green. The radical leaves of 

 various perennials are here. I am surprised to see 

 quite a number of grasshoppers moving about in 

 almost as lively a manner as in the summer time. 

 These are the pupse, and not the fuU-grown insect, 

 for none of them measure more than half an inch 

 in length, and the rudiments of the wings are just 

 appearing from behind the lateral pieces of the 

 doi-sal arc. There are two species ; a light-brown 

 and a green kind, belonging to the genus Tragoce- 

 phala (goat-headed), relating probably to the strik- 

 ing resemblance their heads bear to those of goats ; 



