/The Professor: Avignon 



"Un paoure inoucent, picdire!" 



And all three made the sign of the Cross. 1 



This last scene was enacted on one of the 

 deeply-sunken roads on the outskirts of Car- 

 pentras, whither Fabre was fond of repair- 

 ing for his researches. From an early period, 

 indeed, his craze for exploration had led him 

 far beyond the Avignon district. On this 

 third stage of his excursions, he struck out to 

 some extent in all directions, but the locality 

 which he preferred for his insect-hunting was 

 undoubtedly the " Sunken Road," as it was 

 called, in the neighbourhood of Carpentras. 

 A lonely valley with a sandy soil, with high, 

 steep slopes on either hand, its flanks deeply 

 scored into ravines and burned by the sun, 

 the " Sunken Road " was an ideal home for 

 the Hymenoptera, those lovers of sunny 

 slopes and soils that are easily worked; and 

 this was enough to make it the favourite 

 haunt of the intrepid biologist. 2 



Among the Hymenoptera that frequent the 

 slopes and embankments of the " Sunken 

 Road," in addition to the Hunting-wasps, 

 which feed their larvae on living flesh, there 

 are other species which provide them with 



1 Souvenirs, I., p. 136. The Hunting Wasps, chap, viii., 

 " The Languedocian Sphex." 



2 Souvenirs, L, pp. 50, 52 ; 11., p. 262 e t seg. 



137 



