Written by Jean-Henri Fabre
The Life of the Grasshopper
by Jean-Henri FabreFame is built up mainly of legend; in the animal world, as in the world of men, the story takes precedence of history. Insects in particular, whether they attract our attention in this way or in that, have their fair share in a folk-lore which pays but little regard to truth.For instance, who does not know the Cicada, at least by name? Where, in th..
The Life of the Scorpion
by Jean-Henri Fabrehe Scorpion is an uncommunicative creature, secret in his practices and disagreeable to deal with, so that his history, apart from anatomical detail, amounts to little or nothing. The scalpel of the experts has made us acquainted with his organic structure; but no observer, as far as I know, has thought of interviewing him, with any sort of persist..
The Sacred Beetle, and Others
by Jean-Henri FabreThis is the first of the four volumes containing Fabre’s essays on Beetles, the order of insects to which, if we judge by his output, he devoted the longest study. It will be followed in due course by The Glow-worm and Other Beetles, The Life of the Weevil, and More Beetles. These three, however, will be issued, not in immediate succession, but tur..
Animal Life in Field and Garden
by Jean-Henri FabreHerbivorous animals are those that live on grass, fodder, hay; and carnivorous animals are those that eat flesh. The horse, the donkey, the ox, and the sheep are herbivorous; the dog, the cat, and the wolf, carnivorous. The food of the herbivorous animal is tough, hard, fibrous, and must be ground for a long time by the teeth in order to be reduced..
The Life of the Caterpillar
by Jean-Henri FabreThis caterpillar has already had his story told by Réaumur,1 but it was a story marked by gaps. These were inevitable in the conditions under which the great man worked, for he had to receive all his materials by barge from the distant Bordeaux Landes. The transplanted insect could not be expected to furnish its biographer with other than fragmenta..
The Mason-Wasps
by Jean-Henri FabreThis is the second volume on Wasps in the Collected Edition of Fabre’s Souvenirs entomologiques. The first of these was The Hunting Wasps; and the present volume is somewhat wilfully entitled, for all Wasps hunt in varying degrees, if not on their own behalf, at least on that of their young. My object, however, was to bring together all the essays ..
Our Humble Helpers
by Jean-Henri FabreIn its purpose and style this book closely resembles the same author’s “Story-Book of Science,” and it belongs to the same series. To many readers, however, it is likely to prove even more interesting than its predecessor, inasmuch as the domestic animals are more familiar and hence more interesting to many persons than the ant, the spider, the pla..
The Hunting Wasps
by Jean-Henri FabreHenri Fabre’s essays on Wasps will fill three volumes in all, of which this is the first. The others will be entitled The Mason-Wasps and More Hunting Wasps. The former will include the chapters on the Common or Social Wasp. The first seventeen chapters of the present book appeared some years ago, wholly or in part, in a version of vol. i. of the S..