PREFACE 



THIS book is an outgrowth from a series of nature 

 articles printed in Harper's Magazine during the 

 last four years. They were so well received that the 

 writer was asked to put them into form for permanent 

 publication. For the most part, the papers deal with 

 popular phases of insect and aranead life, and their 

 themes are drawn chiefly from the author's own special- 

 ties, ants and spiders. Outside of these, however, the 

 products of some original studies have been given, as 

 with certain wild bees, with water-striders, caddis-flies, 

 wasps, and ant-lions. 



A number of new chapters have been added. The 

 magazine articles have been revised, enlarged by new 

 material, and otherwise changed, it is hoped for the 

 better. Parts of three of the new chapters have been 

 taken from articles printed in the Forward, of Phila- 

 delphia, and for such use thanks are due the editor and 

 publishers. 



Free use has been made of such work of other ento- 

 mologists as served the writer's purpose, knowing that 

 naturalists are ever best pleased when their contribu- 

 tions to the knowledge of nature are best known. But 

 as far as desirable in a work of this sort, credit has been 

 given for published observations not original with the 



author. 



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