62 The Life of a Spider 



the others are doing, she awaits the hop of the 

 Locust. 



Nevertheless, these close quarters have their 

 drawbacks when laying- time arrives. The cords 

 by which the different establishments are hung 

 interlace and criss-cross in a confused network. 

 When one of them shakes, all the others are 

 more or less affected. This is enough to distract 

 the layer from her business and to make her do 

 silly things. Here are two instances. 



A bag has been woven during the night. I 

 find it, when I visit the cage in the morning, 

 hanging from the trellis-work and completed. 

 It is perfect, as regards structure ; it is decorated 

 with the regulation black meridian curves. 

 There is nothing missing, nothing except the 

 essential thing, the eggs, for which the spinstress 

 has gone to such expense in the matter of 

 silks. Where are the eggs ? They are not in 

 the bag, which I open and find empty. They 

 are lying on the ground below, on the sand in 

 the pan, utterly unprotected. 



Disturbed at the moment of discharging them, 

 the mother has missed the mouth of the little 

 bag and dropped them on the floor. Perhaps 



