on Moths and Butterflies, Crustaceans, etc.--Translator's Note.), and
boasted a multitude of most attractive illustrations; but the price of
it, the price of it! No matter: was not my splendid income supposed
to cover everything, food for the mind as well as food for the body?
Anything extra that I gave to the one I could save upon the other; a
method of balancing painfully familiar to those who look to science for
their livelihood. The purchase was effected. That day my professional
emoluments were severely strained: I devoted a month's salary to the
acquisition of the book. I had to resort to miracles of economy for some
time to come before making up the enormous deficit.

The book was devoured; there is no other word for it. In it, I learnt
the name of my black Bee; I read for the first time various details of
the habits of insects; I found, surrounded in my eyes with a sort of
halo, the revered names of Reaumur, Huber (Francois Huber (1750-1831),
the Swiss naturalist, author of "Nouvelles observations sur les
abeilles." He early became blind from excessive study and conducted
his scientific work thereafter with the aid of his wife.--Translator's
Note.) and Leon Dufour (Jean Marie Leon Dufour (1780-1865), an
army surgeon who served with distinction in several campaigns, and
subsequently practised as a doctor in the Landes, where he attained
great eminence as a naturalist. Fabre often refers to him as the
Wizard of the Landes. Cf. "The Life of the Spider", by J. Henri Fabre,
translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chapter 1; and "The Life of
the Fly": chapter 1.--Translator's Note.); and, while I turned over the
pages for the hundredth time, a voice within me seemed to whisper:

'You also shall be of their company!'

Ah, fond illusions, what has come of you? (The present essay is one of
the earliest in the "Souvenirs Entomologiques."--Translator's Note.)

But let us banish these recollections, at once sweet and sad, and speak
of the doings of our black Bee. Chalicodoma, meaning a house of pebbles,
concrete or mortar, would be a most satisfactory title, were it not that
it has an odd sound to any one unfamiliar with Greek. The name is given
to Bees who build their cells with materials similar to those which we
employ for our own dwellings. The work of these insects is masonry; only
it is turned out by a rustic mason more used to hard clay than to hewn
stone. Reaumur, who knew nothing of scientific classification