Among the other Scoliae of my district I will mention the Two-banded Scolia
(S. bifasciata, VAN DER LIND), whom I see every year, in September, working
at the heaps of leaf-mould which are placed for her benefit in a corner of
my paddock; and the Interrupted Scolia (S. interrupta, LATR.), the
inhabitant of the sandy soil at the foot of the neighbouring hills. Much
smaller than the two preceding insects, but also much commoner, a necessary
condition of continuous observation, they will provide me with the
principal data for this study of the Scoliae.

I open my old note book; and I see myself once more, on the 6th of August,
1857, in the Bois des Issards, that famous copse near Avignon which I have
celebrated in my essay on the Bembex-wasps. (Cf. "The Hunting Wasps":
chapter 14.--Translator's Note.) Once again, my head crammed with
entomological projects, I am at the beginning of my holidays which, for two
months, will allow me to indulge in the insect's company.

A fig for Mariotte's flask and Toricelli's tube! (Edme Mariotte (1620-
1684), a French chemist who discovered, independently of Robert Boyle the
Irishman (1627-1691), the law generally known as Boyle's law, which states
that the product of the volume and the temperature of a gas is constant at
constant temperature. His flask is an apparatus contrived to illustrate
atmospheric pressure and ensure a constant flow of liquid.--Translator's
Note.) (Evangelista Toricelli (1608-1647), a disciple of Galileo and
professor of philosophy and mathematics at Florence. His "tube" is our
mercury barometer. He was the first to obtain a vacuum by means of mercury;
and he also improved the microscope and the telescope.--Translator's Note.)
This is the thrice-blest period when I cease to be a schoolmaster and
become a schoolboy, the schoolboy in love with animals. Like a madder-
cutter off for his day's work, I set out carrying over my shoulder a solid