NATURE'S CRAFTSMEN 



issue from the cocoons, and go forth to follow the life- 

 round of the race that has passed away. 



It is thus that Orange Argiope fulfils the course of her 

 days. Would you call this a natural death? Be it so; 

 yet it is not the common fashion. The most natural 

 death of spiders is, perhaps, a violent one. To feed the 

 hungry maw of a stronger, more skilful, or more fortu- 

 nate fellow -aranead; to be rapt from her home and 

 hunting-field; to be paralyzed and entombed within a 

 clay sarcophagus by a mother wasp, and to serve as 

 food for a growing waspling worm; to be snapped up 

 as a delicate tidbit by birds, toads, and other creatures 

 that feed upon her — these are some of the modes by 

 which in the appointments of nature Orange Argiope 

 and her congeners meet that doom which nmst befall 

 all the hving. And a pamless death no doubt it is, 

 even thus. 



