The Life of Jean Henri Fabre 



Things were going to perfection; I had only to 

 sit still and look. 



Every moment a Bembex would enter, swift as 

 lightning, and dart up to the silken ceiling, which 

 resounded with a sharp thud. Some rumpus was 

 going on aloft, where the eye could no longer dis- 

 tinguish between attacker and attacked, so lively 

 was the fray. The struggle did not last for an 

 appreciable time : the Wasp would retire forthwith 

 with a victim between her legs. 



Obviously this suddenness of attack, followed 

 by the swift removal of the prey, does not allow 

 the Bembex to regulate her dagger-play. 1 



With ever-increasing accuracy, by the com- 

 bined efforts of observation and experiment, 

 that rich entomological material was amassed 

 which was one day to serve for the erection 

 of one of the finest and most enduring monu- 

 ments of contemporary science. 



We should form but a very incomplete idea 

 of the sort of work to which the future au- 

 thor of the Souvenirs began to devote himself 

 at this early stage of his professorship were 

 we merely to note his frequent visits to Les 

 Angles and his long sessions beneath his um- 

 brella in the Bois des Issarts. 



Apart from this favourite field of observa- 



1 Souvenirs, I., pp. 221, 240-241. The Hunting Wasps, 

 chap, xiv., " The Bembex." 



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