248 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



generally to be found living peacefully with their 

 consorts. 



More rarely the male weaves a small nuptial tent, into 

 which he partly leads and partly drives the female : 

 though the " driving " would appear to be merely for 

 form's sake ! The habits of the Cellar Spider (Tegenaria 

 parietina)y a long-legged species fairly common in the 

 South of England, affords a yet further interesting and 

 instructive contrast with the foregoing accounts. The 

 pairing habits of this species have been studied by many 

 observers, but perhaps the best account is that of Mr. 

 F. M. Campbell. He found, to begin with, that in this 

 species the tender ties of mating are at any rate rarely 

 violated by the horrible aftermath of cannibalism so 

 common a feature with so many other Spiders. 



One or two illustrations from Mr. Campbell's work 

 must suffice. On one occasion he placed together a 

 male ^nd a female. For four days they took no notice of 

 one another ; then the female cast what proved to be 

 her last skin, and within three hours after, the male began 

 to show signs of interest in her presence — which is a fact 

 of some significance, for not till then had she attained 

 maturity. " After a few convulsive twitchings of the 

 legs, the male pressed forwards, moving his palpi " — the leg- 

 like " feelers " on each side of the head which form the 

 genital organs (page 241) — **up and down, when, as they 

 touched the palpi of the female, the pair played with 

 these organs like two friendly bees with their antennae. 

 After a few minutes the female raised herself, leaning 

 a little on her left side, and the male crept forward until 

 his head was under the breast of his mate, while his 

 first pair of legs were resting upon hers. He now 

 advanced his right palpus, leaning a little to the left and 



