Translator s Note 



The following essays have been selected from 

 the ten volumes composing the Souvenirs ento- 

 mologiques. Although a good deal of Henri 

 Fabre's masterpiece has been published in 

 English, none of the articles treating of spiders 

 has appeared before, with the exception of 

 that forming Chapter ii. of the present volume, 

 The Banded Epeira, which was first printed in 

 The English Review. The rest are new to 

 England and America. 



The Fabre books already published are Insect 

 Life, translated by the author of Mademoiselle 

 Mori (Macmillan, 1901) ; The Life and Love of 

 the Insect, translated by myself (Black, 191 1) ; 

 and Social Life in the Insect World, translated 

 by Mr. Bernard Miall (Unwin, 1912). Refer- 

 ences to the above volumes will be found, when- 

 ever necessary, in the footnotes to the present 

 edition. For the rest, I have tried not to over- 

 burden my version with notes ; and, in view of 



