THE BANDED EPEIRA 171 



Any small prey suits her ; and, as long as she can find 

 supports for her web, she settles wherever the Locust 

 hops, wherever the Fly hovers, wherever the Dragon-fly 

 dances or the Butterfly flits. As a rule, because of the 

 greater abundance of game, she spreads her toils across 

 some brooklet, from bank to bank among the rushes. 

 She also stretches them, but not so assiduously, in the 

 thickets of evergreen oak, on the slopes with the scrubby 

 greenswards, dear to the Grasshoppers. 



Her hunting-weapon is a large upright web, whose 

 outer boundary, which varies according to the disposi- 

 tion of the ground, is fastened to the neighboring 

 branches by a number of moorings. Let us see, first of 

 all, how the ropes which form the framework of the 

 building are obtained. 



All day invisible, crouching amid the cypress-leaves, 

 the Spider, at about eight o'clock in the evening, solemnly 

 emerges from her retreat and makes for the top of a 

 branch. In this exalted position she sits for some time 

 laying her plans with due regard to the locality; she 

 consults the weather, ascertains if the night will be fine. 

 Then, suddenly, with her eight legs widespread, she lets 

 herself drop straight down, hanging to the line that issues 

 from her spinnerets. Just as the rope-maker obtains the 

 even output of his hemp by walking backwards, so does 

 the Epeira obtain the discharge of hers by falling. It 

 is extracted by the weight of her body. 



The descent, however, has not the brute speed which 

 the force of gravity would give it, if uncontrolled. It is 

 governed by the action of the spinnerets, which contract 



