Experiments 



Sacred Beetle^ calling on his comrades to lend 

 a helping hand in dragging his pellet out of a 

 rut; the Sphex^ cutting up her fly so as to be 

 able to carry him despite the obstacle of the 

 wind; and all the other fallacies which are the 

 stock-in-trade of those who wish to see in the 

 animal world what is not really there. In 

 this way, again, materials will be prepared 

 which will one day be worked up by the hand 

 of a master and consign hasty and unfounded 

 theories to oblivion. 



Reaumur, as a rule, confines himself to 

 stating facts as he sees them in the normal 

 course of events and does not try to probe 

 deeper into the insect's ingenuity by means of 

 artificially produced conditions. In his time, 

 everything had yet to be done; and the har- 

 vest was so great that the illustrious harvester 

 went straight to what was most urgent, the 

 gathering of the crop, and left his successors 



^A Dung-beetle who rolls the manure of cattle into 

 balls for his own consumption and that of his young. 

 Cf. Insect Life, by J. H. Fabre, translated by the author 

 of Mademoiselle Mori: chaps, i. and ii.; and TJie Life 

 and Love of the Insect, by J. Henri Fabre, translated 

 by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chaps, i. to iv. — 

 Translator's Note. 



"A species of Hunting Wasp. Cf. Insect Life: chaps. 

 vi. and xii. — Translator's Note. 



31 



