7 o8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



logiqucs. It forms the first of three volumes on wasps. For some reason or other 

 the work of Fabre was very little known in his own country, and hardly at all in 

 this until comparatively recently. He was a magnificent observer with an extra- 

 ordinary skill and patience, and when these gifts are combined, as they were in his 

 case, with great command of language and power of expression, the result is the 

 production of most interesting and readable books. One is inclined to regard 

 Fabre as a rather austere hermit-like man, but although his last years were spent 

 in seclusion, he was not always so. Read, for example, Chap. XI. in the present 

 work, "The Ascent of Mont Ventoux," and you cannot help entering into the 

 naturalist's zest for the " Homeric " repast partaken after a long hard morning's 

 climb. His love of nature, outdoor activity, and the presence of congenial 

 company is everywhere apparent, and this chapter throws a delightful side-light 

 on his character. The remaining nineteen chapters deal with the life histories of 

 those wonderful insects, the hunting wasps, Cerceris, Sphex, Ammophila, and 

 Bembex. Even when allowance is made for the almost poetic imagery in which 

 the accounts are clothed, it is impossible not to recognise that they record some of 

 the most remarkable of nature's fairy tales. To provide for the future of their 

 offspring, these wasps dig some sort of a burrow in which the egg is laid, and 

 which serves as a larder for the young. This larder needs filling, and here the 

 difficulty arises in most cases, for the food must be fresh, and yet at the same time 

 not so active that it can by its movements damage the young larva. In one case 

 this demand is met by bringing fresh food as required. In the remainder the 

 mother, with an uncanny knowledge of the internal anatomy of her prey which she 

 has not seen, stings in such a way as to paralyse the motor nerve centres, and yet 

 at the same time leave the animal alive so that it will be fresh and harmless when 

 the egg hatches some time later. Various experiments to test the powers and 

 limitations of the instinct of these wasps are also recorded and discussed. 



The whole book is one of enthralling interest to both scientist and layman 

 alike, and one that once begun cannot be laid aside until it is finished, by which 

 time it will have provided much food for reflection. 



Mr. de Mattos has supplied a very good translation, one that retains the form 

 and spirit of the original with remarkable fidelitv. 



C. H. O'D. 



Memoirs of the Indian Museum. Vol. V. Fauna of the Chilka, No. 4, July 



1916. Price Rs. 8.8. 

 Records of the Indian Museum. Vol. VIII, Part IX. Zoological Results of 



the Abor Expedition, 1911-12. August 1916. Price Rs. 2. 

 Ditto Vol. XII. Pt. I. Feb. 1916. Price Rs. 2. 

 Ditto Vol. XII. Pt. III. May 1916. Price Rs. 2. 

 Ditto Vol. XII. Pt. IV. Aug. 1916. Price Rs. 2. 



All published by order of the Trustees of the Indian Museum and printed at 

 the Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta. 



The above list brings the publications of the Indian Museum up to August 1916. 

 The part of the Memoirs continues the account of the Fauna of Lake Chilka 

 already reviewed in these columns. A description is now given of the Mollusca 

 Gastropoda and Lamellibranchiata, with an account of the anatomy of the common 

 Solen ; the Mollusca Nudibranchiata ; stages in the Life-History of Gobius, 

 Petroscirtes and Hemirhamphus ; the Cumacea and the first part of the fish of 

 the Lake. This last paper by Dr. B. L. Chaudhuri of the Indian Museum deals 

 with the Selachii and Batoidei together with the two sub-orders of the Teleostei, 



