

PREFACE 



This little volume introduces the work of a great 

 French naturalist to the reader of English. Reaumur, 

 another Frenchman, is the greatest naturalist devoting 

 himself to the observation of insects the world has 

 yet seen. His six quarto volumes — Mimoires pour 

 servir a Vhistoire des insectes — were published be- 

 tween 1734 and 1742. J.-H. Fabre, who happily 

 is still with us, is second only to Reaumur in this 

 part of the great field of Natural History. 



Though compatriots the two men are remarkably 

 different in the nature of their genius. Reaumur, 

 stately and slow, both discursive and diffuse. Fabre, — 

 styled by Charles Darwin the immortal Fabre, — a 

 most patient, indefatigable observer, ready to sacrifice 

 everything to the carrying on of his work, but 

 making deductions too rapidly from his observations, 

 and taking a philosophical position from which he 

 refuses to budge, even though he stand alone among 

 the naturalists of this generation. 



Fabre's great merit is his graphic portraiture of 

 the living insect as it really is. This proves to be 



