Behold me then the owner of three establishments, each possessing its advantages and its defects: the free colony at the end of the paddock; the wire-gauze cages in my study; [[29]]and lastly the glazed rock-garden. I shall consult them turn and turn about, especially the last. To the evidence supplied in this manner we will add the rare data gathered from stones turned over on the original sites. The Scorpions’ luxurious Crystal Palace, now the leading curiosity of my home, stands all the year round in the open air, on a bench at a few steps from my door. Not a member of the family passes it without a glance. Taciturn creatures, shall I succeed in making you speak? [[30]]
[1] Thursday is a whole holiday in the French schools. At this time the author was a schoolmaster at Avignon. Cf. The Life of the Fly, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps. xix and xx.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[2] Scolopendra cingulata, the centipede.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[3] Cf. The Life of the Spider, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: passim.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[4] More recent opinion conceives the comb or picten as originally the respiratory organ of an aquatic ancestor of Scorpio, now probably serving as a guide or clasper when pairing.—“B. W.” [↑]
[5] For the Narbonne Lycosa, or Black-bellied Tarantula, cf. The Life of the Spider: chaps. i and iii to vi.—Translator’s Note. [↑]
[6] The enclosed paddock, or piece of waste land, in which the author used to study his insects in their natural state. Cf. The Life of the Fly: chap. i.—Translator’s Note. [↑]