496 Canadian Record of Science 



attributed to Darwin. As far back as 1881, we find the 

 philosopher of Down writing anxiously to Romanes and 

 asking him. to discuss in a forthcoming work some of the 

 astonishing experiments of Fabre. Unfortunately, he 

 died before he could be initiated into the secrets Fabre 

 was yearly solving, and all discussion of what views he 

 would have taken are futile. But the work of Fabre 

 went on, and to-day the world calls him "Master." 



A Modest Genius. 



"Unluckily for us and for- himself Henri Fabre is pos- 

 sessed of such a modest and retiring character that his 

 studies did not become known for many years. In the 

 little villave of Serignan, in the South of France, he 

 lived only to work. All he asked was leisure to fulfil his 

 self-appointed task, profits and honours left him cold. 

 And there he is to-day-, as keen to work as ever, but the 

 weight of his ninety-one years chains him to a couch in 

 the dining-room of his little home. 



"An example of his work and a brief summing up is 

 all that I can gather within the compass of a short article. 

 It only remains to say that each example is based on 

 countless experiments. The following is from Vol. IV. 

 of the "Souvenirs Entomologiques" : — 



The "Pelopgeus" wasp, the "mud dauber" of warm 

 climates, captures small spiders with which she pro- 

 visions her cells of mud. After inserting the first spider, 

 she lays an egg on it and proceeds to gather more spiders 

 until the cell is full. It is then sealed up and another 

 commenced, and so on until the ovaries of the wasp are 

 exhausted. 



Fabre took away the first spider with the egg at- 

 tached and watched the wasp bring another. Without 

 noticing the robbery, the wasp inserted a second spider 

 and again set out for more. Fabre took the spiders 

 away as fast as the wasp inserted them. At last, though 

 there was not a single spider in the nest, the wasp sealed 



