THE BANDED EPEIRA 173 



several contact-points, increase the steadiness of the two 

 extremities. 



The suspension-cable is incomparably stronger than 

 the rest of - the work and lasts for an indefinite time. 

 The web is generally shattered after the night's hunting 

 and is nearly always rewoven on the following evening. 

 After the removal of the wreckage, it is made all over 

 again, on the same site, cleared of everything except the 

 cable from which the new network is to hang. 



Once the cable is laid, in this way or in that, the Spider 

 is in possession of a base that allows her to approach 

 or withdraw from the leafy piers at will. From the 

 height of the cable she lets herself slip to a slight depth, 

 varying the points of her fall. In this way she obtains, 

 to right and left, a few slanting cross-bars, connecting 

 the cable with the branches. 



These cross-bars, in their turn, support others in ever- 

 changing directions. When there are enough of them, 

 the Epeira need no longer resort to falls in order to 

 extract her threads ; she goes from one cord to the next, 

 always wire-drawing with her hind-legs. This results in 

 a combination of straight lines owning no order, save 

 that they are kept in one nearly perpendicular plane. 

 Thus is marked out a very irregular polygonal area, 

 wherein the web, itself a work of magnificent regularity, 

 shall presently be woven. 



In the lower part of the web, starting from the center, 

 a wide opaque ribbon descends zigzag-wise across the 

 radii. This is the Epeira's trade-mark, the flourish of 



