Chapter ix 



THE GARDEN SPIDERS: BUILDING THE WEB 



The fowling-snare is one of man's ingenious 

 villainies. With lines, pegs and poles, two 

 large, earth-coloured nets are stretched upon 

 the ground, one to the right, the other to 

 the left of a bare surface. A long cord, 

 pulled, at the right moment, by the fowler, 

 who hides in a brushwood hut, works them 

 and brings them together suddenly, like a pair 

 of shutters. 



Divided between the two nets are the cages 

 of the decoy-birds — Linnets and Chaffinches, 

 Greenfinches and Yellowhammers, Buntings and 

 Ortolans — sharp-eared creatures which, on per- 

 ceiving the distant passage of a flock of their 

 own kind, forthwith utter a short calling note. 

 One of them, the Sambe, an irresistible tempter, 

 hops about and flaps his wings in apparent 

 freedom. A bit of twine fastens him to his 



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