278 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. 



among which the web is stretched, the spider employs 

 finer and more delicate threads produced by different 

 glands. 



Now when we consider the exquisite skill with which 

 the garden spider frames her web we are apt to exclaim, 

 How clever she is ! so aptly is the silken mesh work con- 

 structed with its radiating lines from centre to circumfer- 

 ence and its spiral thread beset with viscid globules. And 

 although Mr. Vernon Boys has shown that these viscid 

 globules are not set side by side through the cunning 

 workmanship of the spider but assume this arrangement 

 by an inexorable physical law, still this cannot be said to 

 detract seriously from the geometrical skill of the spider 

 architect. So too when we consider the stealthy way in 

 which the hunting spider stalks his prey, we cannot but 

 admire the intelligent nature of his proceedings. And 

 again when we hear that certain foreign spiders which are 

 brilliantly coloured, yellow, and crimson, and green, 

 frequently sit huddled up in the centre of open flowers 

 where their bright hues render them inconspicuous and 

 where they can seize upon the insects which unwarily 

 visit the flowers ; or when we see the gaily-coloured China 

 Spider of the Cape sitting in its golden web and itself 

 mimicking a flower, we give the spider credit for remark- 

 able cunning and artifice. But, without taking away 

 aught from the striking nature of the facts, we must re- 

 member that these activities are just the natural outcome 

 of different varieties of spider nature, and are in no sense 

 the result of any individual and special cleverness or 

 intelligence on the part of the performer. We do not say 

 of the butterfly, How wonderful that an insect should 

 make itself so beautiful ! Its beauty is part of its natural 

 dower. Nor should we say of the Epeira, How wonder- 



