276 INSECT LIFE 



XX 



of compass and square, made a strong impression 

 on my mind, and I wished to know more about 

 it than my pupils had taught me — namely, how to 

 rob the cells of their honey with a straw. Just 

 then my bookseller had for sale a magnificent work 

 on insects. The Natural History of Articulated 

 Animals, by de Castelnau, E. Blanchard, and Lucas. 

 It was enriched with many engravings which caught 

 the eye. But alas, it had a price — such a price ! 

 What did that matter? My 700 francs ought 

 surely to suffice for everything — food for the mind as 

 well as for the body. That which I bestowed on 

 the one I retrenched from the other — a balance ot 

 accounts to which whoever takes science for a liveli- 

 hood must needs resign himself. The purchase was 

 made. That day I bled my university stipend 

 abundantly ; I paid away a whole month of it. It 

 took a miracle of parsimony to fill up the enormous 

 deficit. 



The book was devoured — I can use no other 

 word. There I learned the name of my black bee, 

 and there I read for the first time details of the 

 habits of insects, and found, with what seemed to my 

 eyes an aureole round them, the venerated names of 

 Reaumur, Huber, L^on Dufour ; and while I turned 

 the pages for the hundredth time, a voice whispered 

 vaguely, " Thou too shalt be a historian of animals!" 

 Naive illusions ! where are you ? But let us banish 

 these recollections, both sweet and sad, and come 

 to the doings of our black bee. 



Chalicodoma, house of pebbles, rough-cast mortar, 

 a name which would be perfect did it not look 

 odd to any one not well up in Greek. It is a 



