The Life of the Spider 



little cottage. This is where she settles with 

 a view to her eggs. 



Ascending and descending with a gentle 

 swing in more or less every direction, the liv- 

 ing shuttle, swollen with silk, weaves a bag 

 whose outer casing becomes one with the dry 

 leaves around. The work, which is partly 

 visible and partly hidden by its supports, is 

 a pure dead-white, its shape, moulded in the 

 angular interval between the bent leaves, is 

 that of a cone and reminds us, on a smaller 

 scale, of the nest of the Silky Epeira. 



When the eggs are laid, the mouth of the 

 receptacle is hermetically closed with a lid of 

 the same white silk. Lastly, a few threads, 

 stretched like a thin curtain, form a canopy 

 above the nest and, with the curved tips of the 

 leaves, frame a sort of alcove wherein the 

 mother takes up her abode. 



It is more than a place of rest after the 

 fatigues of her confinement: it is a guard- 

 room, an inspection-post where the mother re- 

 mains sprawling until the youngsters' exodus. 

 Greatly emaciated by the laying of her eggs 

 and by her expenditure of silk, she lives only 

 for the protection of her nest. 



Should some vagrant pass near by, she 



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