students of zoology
and to refrain from anatomical detail, but at the same time to refrain
from the irritating habit assuming that my readers have no knowledge, no
dictionaries and no other books.'

I began to wonder whether I had gone too far in simplifying the
terminology of the Fabre essays and in appending explanatory footnotes
to the inevitable number of outlandish names of insects. But my doubts
vanished when I thought upon Fabre's own words in the first chapter of
this book: 'If I write for men of learning, for philosophers...I write
above all things for the young. I want to make them love the natural
story which you make them hate; and that is why, while keeping strictly
to the domain of truth, I avoid your scientific prose, which too often,
alas, seems borrowed from some Iroquois idiom!'

And I can but apologize if I have been too lavish with my notes to this
chapter in particular, which introduces to us, as in a sort of litany,
a multitude of the insects studied by the author. For the rest, I have
continued my system of references to the earlier Fabre books, whether
translated by myself or others. Of the following essays, The Harmas has
appeared, under another title, in The Daily Mail; The Pond, Industrial
Chemistry and the two Chapters on the bluebottle in The English Review;
and The Harmas, The Pond and Industrial Chemistry in the New York
Bookman. The others are new to England and America, unless any of them
should be issued in newspapers or magazines between this date and the
publication of the book.

I wish once more to thank Miss Frances Rodwell for her assistance in the
details of my work and in the verification of the many references; and
my thanks are also due to Mr. Edward Cahen, who has been good enough to
revise the two chemistry chapters for me, and to Mr. W. S. Graff Baker,
who has performed the same kindly task towards the two chapters entitled
Mathematical Memories.--Alexander Teixeira de Mattos. Chelsea, 8 July,
1913.

[Recorder's Note: Most Translator's Footnotes have been omitted from
this text, but some of his references to localities and insect names
are included in brackets. I apologize to English readers for changes to
American spelling.]

CHAPTER I. THE HARMAS

This is what I wished for, hoc erat in votis: a bit of land, oh, not so
very large, but fenced in, to avoid the drawbacks of a public way; an
abandoned, barren, sun scorched bit of land, favored by thistles and by
w