The Climbing-Instinct 143 



by the sun. Their perseverance is not re- 

 warded : nothing issues from the satin purse ; 

 nothing stirs within. Why ? Because, in the 

 prison of my cages, the eggs have had no father. 

 Tired of waiting and at last recognizing the 

 barrenness of their produce, they push the bag 

 of eggs outside the burrow and trouble about it 

 no more. At the return of spring, by which 

 time the family, if developed according to rule, 

 would have been emancipated, they die. The 

 mighty Spider of the waste-lands, therefore, 

 attains to an even more patriarchal age than 

 her neighbour the Sacred Beetle : ^ she lives for 

 five years at the very least. 



Let us leave the mothers to their business and 

 return to the youngsters. It is not without a 

 certain surprise that we see the little Lycosae, 

 at the first moment of their emancipation, hasten 

 to ascend the heights. Destined to live on 

 the ground, amidst the short grass, and after- 

 wards to settle in the permanent abode, 

 a pit, they start by being enthusiastic acro- 



1 Cf. Insect Life, by J. H. Fab re, translated by the author of 

 Mademoiselle Mori : chaps, i. and ii. ; The Life and Love of the 

 Insect, by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de 

 Mattos : chaps, i. to iv. — Translator'' s Note. 



