The Telegraph-lVire 265 



has not seen the Epeira in this attitude, with her 

 hand, so to speak, on the telegraph-receiver, 

 knows nothing of one of the most curious in- 

 stances of animal cleverness. Let any game 

 appear upon the scene ; and the slumberer, 

 forthwith aroused by means of the leg receiving 

 the vibrations, hastens up. A Locust whom I 

 myself lay on the web procures her this agreeable 

 shock and what follows. If she is satisfied with 

 her bag, I am still more satisfied with what I 

 have learnt. 



The occasion is too good not to find out, under 

 better conditions as regards approach, what the 

 inhabitant of the cypress-trees has already 

 shown me. The next morning, I cut the tele- 

 graph-wire, this time as long as one's arm and 

 held, like yesterday, by one of the hind-legs 

 stretched outside the cabin. I then place on 

 the web a double prey, a Dragon-fly and a 

 Locust. The latter kicks out with his long, 

 spurred shanks; the other flutters her wings. 

 The web is tossed about to such an extent that 

 a number of leaves, just beside the Epeira's nest, 

 move, shaken by the threads of the framework 

 affixed to them. 



