CHAPTER IX 



THE GARDEN SPIDERS: BUILDING THE WEB 



THE fowling-snare is one of man's ingen- 

 ious villainies. With lines, pegs and 

 poles, two large, earth-coloured nets are 

 stretched upon the ground, one to the right, 

 the other to the left of a bare surface. A long 

 cord, pulled, at the right moment, by the 

 fowler, who hides in a brushwood hut, works 

 them and brings them together suddenly, 

 like a pair of shutters. 



Divided between the two nets are the cages 

 of the decoy-birds — Linnets and Chaffinches, 

 Greenfinches and Yellowhammers, Buntings 

 and Ortolans — sharp-eared creatures which, 

 on perceiving the distant passage of a flock of 

 their own kind, forthwith utter a short calling 

 note. One of them, the Sambe, an irresistible 

 tempter, hops about and flaps his wings in ap- 

 parent freedom. A bit of twine fastens him 

 to his convict's stake. When, worn with fa- 

 tigue and driven desperate by his vain at- 

 tempts to get away, the sufferer lies down flat 



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