1 76 The Life of the Spider 



signs of pressure from within are manifest : 

 the tatters of the torn fabric are turned out- 

 wards ; also, a wisp of the russet eiderdown 

 that fills the wallet invariably straggles through 

 the breach. In the midst of the protruding 

 floss, the Spiderlings, expelled from their home 

 by the explosion, are in frantic commotion. 



The balloons of the Banded Epeira are bombs 

 which, to free their contents, burst under the 

 rays of a torrid sun. To break they need the 

 fiery heat-waves of the dog-days. When kept 

 in the moderate atmosphere of my study, most 

 of them do not open and the emergence of the 

 young does not take place, unless I myself have 

 a hand in the business ; a few others open with 

 a round hole, a hole so neat that it might have 

 been made with a punch. This aperture is the 

 work of the prisoners, who, relieving one another 

 in turns, have, with a patient tooth, bitten 

 through the stuff of the jar at some point or 

 other. 



When exposed to the full force of the sun, 

 however, on the rosemaries in the enclosure, 

 the balloons burst and shoot forth a ruddy 

 flood of floss and tiny animals. That is how 



