CHAPTER X 



THE BANDED EPEIRA 



Building the Web 



The fowling-snare is one of man's ingenioui villainies. 

 With lines, pegs and poles, two large, earth-colored 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, worlds 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 Samhe, an irresistible tempter, 

 hops about and flaps his wings in apparent freedom. A 

 bit of twine fastens him to his convict's stake. When, 

 worn with fatigue and driven desperate by his vain at- 

 tempts to get away, the sufferer lies down flat and refuses 

 to do his duty, the fowler is able to stimulate him with- 

 out stirring from his hut. A long string sets in motion 

 a little lever working on a pivot. Raised from the 

 ground by this diabolical contrivance, the bird flies, falls 

 down and flies up again at each jerk of the cord. 



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