HÉBERT. Manuscript notebook, 12 pp. in-4 with old label on f - Lot 71

Lot 71
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HÉBERT. Manuscript notebook, 12 pp. in-4 with old label on f - Lot 71
HÉBERT. Manuscript notebook, 12 pp. in-4 with old label on flyleaf: "Histoire naturelle Mr Hébert [+ later note "voisin et confrère de Mr de Buffon"]. 1776. Title: "Remarques et observations sur les araignées pour être mises en ordre. 1776". "These remarks will have no sequel because they will appear in the order in which they were made, and I put them on paper only to remind myself of certain facts I have observed", in particular on spider mating and the characteristics that distinguish males and females. "[...] N.B. I make a distinction here between male and female which is based solely on the fact that the manners of the one I take to be the male seem to me to be more suited to the male than to the female. In many insects, the smallest are the males, and this distinction is related to the one I have established. Shortly afterwards, at the same time, I discovered a garden spider web, where there was a male and a female [...] The male also had more sensitive hairs on his legs than the female. The male always stood on the corners of the web. Finally, after 4 or 5 days, having thrown a fly on the canvas, the female came to it. She was busy eating when the male came down, but slowly, cautiously and as if groping. At last they approached, and I thought they were going to fight. The male seemed to be chasing the female, who moved an inch away. Then he wrapped the fly in thread [...]". Attached, from the same source, is a manuscript by another hand: "Moeurs et habitudes des différents espèces d'araignées" (4 pp. in-4).
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