92 The Life of the Spider 



preceding chapters have given but a very rough 

 idea. Since I wrote those earUer essays, my 

 field of observation has been greatly extended. 

 My notes have been enriched by new and most 

 remarkable facts. It is right that I should 

 employ them for the purpose of a more detailed 

 biography. 



The exigencies of order and clearness expose 

 me, it is true, to occasional repetitions. This 

 is inevitable when one has to marshal in an 

 harmonious whole a thousand items culled from 

 day to day, often unexpectedly, and bearing no 

 relation one to the other. The observer is not 

 master of his time ; opportunity leads him and 

 by unsuspected ways. A certain question sug- 

 gested by an earlier fact finds no reply until 

 many years after. Its scope, moreover, is 

 amplified and completed with views collected 

 on the road. In a work, therefore, of this 

 fragmentary character, repetitions, necessary 

 for the due co-ordination of ideas, are inevit- 

 able. I shall be as sparing of them as I can. 



Let us once more introduce our old friends 

 the Epeira and the Lycosa, who are the most 

 important Spiders in my district. The Nar- 



