1883.] 43 



centre, and I observed that nine others were spun-over at the top, the remainder 

 were occupied by larvse in different stages of gi'owth, those near the centre nearly 

 full grown, those near the circumference quite small : altogether there are about 

 forty cells. I am afraid no more wasps will come out now, as the larvse have died in 

 their cells, and made the nest smell so strongly that I fear all the spun-up pupae 

 will be killed. The actual paper-like substance of the nest appears to consist of 

 very fine fibres of wood. — Edward Saunders, Lloyd's : June 17t7i, 1883. 



NouvEAux Souvenirs Entomologiques : Etudes sue l'Instinct et les 

 McEUES DES Insectes. par J.-H. Fabee. Paris : Ch. Delagrave, 1882. pp. 319, 

 12vo. 



In 1880, vol. xvii, p. 117, we noticed the work by this veteran author (who has 

 long been celebrated for his minute history of Sifaris humeralis) entitled " Souvenirs 

 Entomologiques," and the present volume is a continuation and amplification of his 

 most assiduous and complete observations on the instinct and habits of the objects 

 of his attention. There are 17 chapters, entitled : 1, L'Harmas (the name given to 

 the scene of his researches) ; 2, L'Ammophile herissee ; 3, Un sens inconnu. Le 

 Ver gris ; 4, La Theorie de l'Instinct ; 5, Les Eumenes ; 6, Les Odyneres ; 7, Nou- 

 velles recherches sur les Chalcidomes ; 8, Histoire de mes Chats ; 9, Les Fourmis 

 rousses ; 10, Fragments sur la Psychologie de l'Instinct ; 11, La Tarentule a ventre 

 noir ; 12, Les Pompiles ; 13, Les Habitans de la Eonce ; 14, Les Sitaris ; 15, La 

 Larve primaire des Sitaris ; 16, La Larve primaire des Me'loes ; 17, Le Hypermeta- 

 morphose. 



Although the author deprecates criticism on the style of his writing by saying 

 that " his pages contain only a narration of facts observed, nothing more, nothing 

 less," yet the charm of it is in this very simplicity and originality of the relation of 

 his numerous experiments and observations. The chapter about his cats, which, at 

 first sight, looks like an interpolation, is given to show that a cat has the same innate 

 faculty to return in a direct line to its home, even when it has been removed there- 

 from in seclusion, that a Hymenopterous insect in similar circumstances possesses. 

 From the author's points of view, the hypothesis of evolution is not regarded 

 favourably, for the experience of his forty years' observation does not support it. 

 He rejects its theory that instinct is an acquired and transmitted faculty ; such a 

 notion being nothing more than ajeu d'esprit wherewith an indoor naturalist who 

 fashions the world according to his fancy may amuse himself, but in which the 

 observer who grapples with the reality of things finds no serious explanation of 

 anything he sees. 



Every book suffers by translation, especially such an one as this that is so full of 

 graphic individuality ; moreover, the nature of the subjects makes it diSicult to 

 detach a short extract, yet we would have tried to give in this way an idea of the 

 merits of the work, if we had not been met at the very first page by this notice : 

 " Toute traduction ou reproduction, meme partielle, est interdite." All that we can 

 do, therefore, is to recommend this most enticing book of Natural History to the 

 attention of all who read, or wish to read, French. 



