294 The Life of the Spider 



Some among them show less patience. A 

 Uttle while ago, they possessed a web, between 

 the reeds of a brook or in the holm-oak copses ; 

 and now they have none. They go off in 

 search, to recover their property or seize on 

 some one else's : it is all the same to them. 

 I come upon a Banded Epeira, newly im- 

 ported, making for the web of a Silky Epeira 

 who has been my guest for some days now. 

 The owner is at her post, in the centre of the 

 net. She awaits the stranger with seeming 

 impassiveness. Then suddenly they grip each 

 other ; and a desperate fight begins. The 

 Silky Epeira is worsted. The other swathes her 

 in bonds, drags her to the non-limy central 

 floor and, in the calmest fashion, eats her. The 

 dead Spider is munched for twenty-four hours 

 and drained to the last drop, when the corpse, 

 a wretched, crumpled ball, is at last flung aside. 

 The web so foully conquered becomes the 

 property of the stranger, who uses it, if it have 

 not suffered too much in the contest. 



There is here a shadow of an excuse. The 

 two Spiders were of different species ; and the 

 struggle for life often leads to these extermin- 



