CROSS-CUT VIEWS OF WINTER. 245 



growing last spring, she flew to it, and with her 

 ovipositor poisoned the living tissues, and, in some 

 mysterious way, caused this strange deformation 

 that is now the home of the larva or maggot. 

 What a snug little cock-loft of a bedroom it is ! 

 The roof and sides are made impervious to the wet 

 and cold by the imbricated, varnished and woolly 

 scales. Here the sleeping grub on its mast-head 

 outrides a hundred winter storms, and waits for 

 the April sun to wake it up and give it wings, that 

 it may fly away to perform miracles like its ances- 

 try. By tearing off carefully course after course 

 of the concave shingles one may bring to light a 

 little salmon-colored worm lodged within the four 

 narrower scales in the centre of the bud. Here it 

 is wrapped up in a thin, transparent coverlet, the 

 head toward the base of the bud, and so deeply 

 buried in the woody end that it is difficult to de- 

 tach it without rupturing the body. The position 

 in which it is placed would lead one to believe that 

 it may, at certain stages of its growth, draw what 

 little moisture and food it needs from the twig. 



There is a woody flavor in the air that was not 

 perceived a few days ago. The little brownish- 

 yellow cones on the twigs of the white cedars 

 (^Cupressus tliyoides) are already quite conspicuous. 



