INSECT LIFE
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
[Frontispiece.
THE SACRED BEETLE.
INSECT LIFE
SOUVENIRS OF A NATURALIST
J.-H. FABRE
DOCTEUR ÈS SCIENCES
‘that inimitable observer.’—Charles Darwin
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
BY THE
AUTHOR OF ‘MADEMOISELLE MORI’
WITH A PREFACE BY
DAVID SHARP, M.A., F.R.S.
AND EDITED BY
F. MERRIFIELD
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
M. PRENDERGAST PARKER
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
1913
To the attentive eye the sight of industrial insects exhibiting the most refined art in their labours is a spectacle both strange and sublime. Human Reason is confounded by Instinct thus raised to the highest pitch of which Nature can offer an example, and the perturbation of intelligence increases on observing, patiently and minutely, the details of the life of those creatures most highly endowed with instinct.
E. Blanchard.
First Edition 1901. Reprinted 1913 [[v]]