82 The Life of the Spider 



seized in the fangs, embraced by the legs and 

 hung on to the spinneret. Her own or another's : 

 it is all one to the Spider, who walks away 

 proudly with the alien wallet. This was to 

 be expected, in view of the similarity of the 

 pills exchanged. 



A test of another kind, with a second subject, 

 renders the mistake more striking. I substi- 

 tute, in the place of the lawful bag which I 

 have removed, the work of the Silky Epeira. 

 The colour and softness of the material are the 

 same in both cases ; but the shape is quite 

 different. The stolen object is a globe ; the 

 object presented in exchange is an elliptical 

 conoid studded with angular projections along 

 the edge of the base. The Spider takes no 

 account of this dissimilarity. She promptly 

 glues the queer bag to her spinnerets and is as 

 pleased as though she were in possession of her 

 real pill. My experimental villainies have no 

 other consequences beyond an ephemeral cart- 

 ing. When hatching-time arrives, early in the 

 case of the Lycosa, late in that of the Epeira, 

 the gulled Spider abandons the strange bag 

 and pays it no further attention. 



