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STRANGE DWELLINGS. 
In these curious galls, the excrescences with which they are 
covered take the form of leaves instead of hairs, as is the case 
with the bedeguar and many other galls. These bud-like objects 
may be found on the young twigs, and may be easily recognised 
by their shape, which somewhat resembles that of a pine-apple, 
and the curious manner in which their leafy covering lies regu- 
larly over them, like the tiles upon an ornamental roof. The 
size of the gall is rather variable, but it is, on an average, about 
as large as an ordinary hazel-nut. 
The gall is so wonderfully bud-like that I have known the 
two objects to be confounded — the immature acorns in their 
cups to be carried off as galls, while the real galls were left on 
the tree. The incipient naturalist who made the mistake kept 
the buds for some eighteen months, and was sadly disappointed 
to find that no insects were produced from them. 
The insect whose acrid injection produces this curious effect 
upon the tree is rather larger than the leaf-gall insect, and is 
of more slender proportions. It has been suggested that the 
object of the leafy or hairy covering is, that the insect, which 
remains in the gall throughout the winter, should have a warm 
house by which it may be protected from the chilling frost as 
well as from the wind and rain. 
If the reader will again refer to the illustration, he will see 
that from the same branch on which the Cynips Kollari has 
formed so many galls, depend two slender threads support- 
ing one or two globular objects. These are popularly called 
Currant-galls, because they look very much like bunches of 
currants from which the greater part of the fruit has been 
removed. Their colour, too, is another reason for giving them 
this name, as they are sometimes scarlet, resembling red cur- 
rants, and sometimes pale cream colour, thus imitating the white 
variety. 
These galls are placed upon the catkins of the oak, which 
are forced to give all their juices to the increase of the gall, 
instead of employing them on their own development. Some 
authors think that the insect which forms them is a different 
