NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



mother clothing her infants in the garments her own 

 hands have made. The happiness, the hope, the eager 

 fondness that play over her face and find expression 

 in smiles and gentle cooings and kisses placed upon 

 face and body and pink fingers and toes, and, like 

 outbreaks of rapturous love, have no likeness and 

 seemingly no analogue in the mechanical actions of 

 the spider mother. Yet, in the deftness of her art, in 

 the beauty of her work, in the patience of her spirit, in 



her self - abnegation even 

 unto death, the aranead 

 does not show to disadvan- 

 tage. 



In the natural handicraft- 

 manship of living things 

 there is nothing of higher 

 artistic merit than the silken 

 baby-clothes which a spider 

 mother provides for her off- 

 NESTiNG-TENT OF A SPIDER ON j^o- Her eo-ffs arc 



LAUREL-LEAVES bpilllfe. -L-iei t;^g& am 



swathed in softest silken floss, 

 covered with silken sheets and blankets, and these again 

 wrapped about with a weather-proof encasement. These 

 are not only the cradle furnishings of the eggs, but flossy 

 swaddling-bands for the young in the tender and callow 

 period following their hatching. The spider mother even 

 indulges in the bright colors with which maternal love 

 in our race is wont to find expression. The vaselike 

 cocoon of our splendid orange Argiope {Argiope au- 

 rantium) contains three hues of silk — white, brown, and 

 yellow. Other species use silks of delicate green; but 

 white and yellow are the prevailing colors. 



Some of our native spider fauna combine with the 



204 



