THE HARxMAS 13 



legs: the genial paterfamilias has brought his precious 

 packet from afar, to leave it in the water and afterwards 

 retire under some flat stone, when he will emit a sound 

 like a tinkling bell. Lastly, when not croaking amid the 

 foliage, the Tree-frogs indulge in the most graceful 

 ^ves. And so, in May, as soon as it is dark, the pond 

 becomes a deafening orchestra : it is impossible to talk at 

 table, impossible to sleep. We had to remedy this by 

 means perhaps a little too rigorous. What could we 

 do? He who tries to sleep and cannot needs become 

 ruthless. 



Bolder still, the Wasp has taken possession of the 

 dwelling-house. On my door-sill, in a soil of rubbish, 

 nestles the WTiite-banded Sphex: when I go indoors, I 

 must be careful not to damage her burrows, not to tread 

 upon the miner absorbed in her work. It is quite a 

 quarter of a century since I last saw the saucy Cricket- 

 hunter. When I made her acquaintance, I used to visit 

 her at a few miles' distance : each time, it meant an ex- 

 pedition under the blazing August sun. To-day I find 

 her at my door; we are intimate neighbors. The em- 

 brasure of the closed window provides an apartment of a 

 mild temperature for the Pelopseus.^ The earth-built 

 nest is fixed against the freestone wall. To enter her 

 home, the Spider-huntress uses a little hole left open by 

 accident in the shutters. On the moldings of the Vene- 

 tian blinds, a few stray Mason-bees build their group of 

 cells; inside the outer shutters, left ajar, a Eumenes ^ 



1 A species of Mason-wasp. — Translator's Note. 

 * Another Mason-wasp. — Translator's Note. 



