The Banded Epeira 59 



She felt her hour at hand and came down 

 from her web. Near by, in the rank grass, she 

 wove the tabernacle of her offspring and, in 

 so doing, drained her resources. To resume 

 her hunting-post, to return to her web would 

 be useless to her : she has not the wherewithal 

 to bind the prey. Besides, the fine appetite 

 of former days has gone. Withered and languid, 

 she drags out her existence for a few days and, 

 at last, dies. This is how things happen in my 

 cages ; this is how they must happen in the 

 brushwood. 



The Silky Epeira {Epeira sericea, Oliv.) excels 

 the Banded Epeira in the manufacture of big 

 hunting-nets, but she is less gifted in the art 

 of nest-building. She gives her nest the in- 

 elegant form of an obtuse cone. The opening 

 of this pocket is very wide and is scalloped into 

 lobes by which the edifice is slung. It is closed 

 with a large lid, half satin, half swan's-down. 

 The rest is a stout white fabric, frequently 

 covered with irregular brown streaks. 



The difference between the work of the two 

 Epeirae does not extend beyond the wrapper, 

 which is an obtuse cone in the one case and a 



