The Life of the Spider 



head downwards and does not stir from it, 

 satisfied with her neighbour's web as with her 

 own. Neither by day nor by night does she 

 try to shift her quarters and restore matters 

 to their pristine state. Both Spiders think 

 themselves in their own domain. The two 

 pieces of work are so much alike that I almost 

 expected this. 



I then decide to affect an exchange of webs 

 between two different species. I move the 

 Banded Epeira to the net of the Silky Epeira 

 and vice versa. The two webs are now dis- 

 similar; the Silky Epeira's has a limy spiral 

 consisting of closer and more numerous circles. 

 What will the Spiders do, when thus put to 

 the test of the unknown? One would think 

 that, when one of them found meshes too wide 

 for her under her feet, the other meshes too 

 narrow, they would be frightened by this sud- 

 den change and decamp in terror. Not at all. 

 Without a sign of perturbation, they remain, 

 plant themselves in the centre and await the 

 coming of the game, as though nothing 

 extraordinary had happened. They do more 

 than this. Days pass and, as long as the un- 

 familiar web is not wrecked to the extent of 

 being unserviceable, they make no attempt to 



320 



