The Life of the Spider 



treat him, in short, as they would treat a live 

 prey captured under normal conditions. It 

 took the shaking of the web to decide them 

 to attack. 



Perhaps the grey colour of the Locust is not 

 sufficiently conspicuous to attract attention 

 by itself. Then let us try red, the brightest 

 colour to our retina and probably also to the 

 Spiders'. None of the game hunted by the 

 Epeirae being clad in scarlet, I make a small 

 bundle out of red wool, a bait of the size of a 

 Locust. I glue it to the web. 



My stratagem succeds. As long as the 

 parcel is stationary, the Spider is not roused; 

 but, the moment it trembles, stirred by my 

 straw, she runs up eagerly. 



There are silly ones who just touch the 

 thing with their legs and, without further en- 

 quiries, swathe it in silk after the manner of 

 the usual game. They even go so far as to dig 

 their fangs into the bait, following the rule of 

 the preliminary poisoning. Then and then 

 only the mistake is recognized and the tricked 

 Spider retires and does not come back, unless 

 it be long afterwards, when she flings the 

 lumbersome object out of the web. 



There are also clever ones. Like the 



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