The Travellers 



warm moisture of the earth under the sum- 

 mer sun before it can leave its cell. 



If I knew the exact period at which the 

 Hairy Ammophila emerges from her native 

 burrow, this would help me greatly; but, to 

 my intense regret, I do not know it. My 

 notes, collected day by day, with the lack of 

 order inevitable in a type of research that is 

 constantly subject to the hazards of the un- 

 foreseen, are silent on this point, of which I 

 clearly perceive the importance now that I 

 am trying to arrange my materials in order to 

 write these lines. I find the Sandy Ammo- 

 phila mentioned as hatching on the 5th of 

 June and the Silvery Ammophila on the 

 2Oth of that month; but my records con- 

 tain not a word that relates to the hatch- 

 ing of the Hairy Ammophila. It is a de- 

 tail which, by an oversight, has never been 

 cleared up. The dates given for the other 

 two species come under the general law, which 

 lays down that the perfect insect shall appear 

 during the hot season. I fix the same period, 

 by analogy, as that for the Hairy Ammo- 

 phila's emergence from the cocoon. 



Then whence come the Ammophilae whom 

 we see working at their burrows at the end 

 of March and in April? We are driven to 

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