312 TJie Ufe of tlie Spider 



thread that he is trailing from his legs. The 

 bold assailant does not mind. Without troub- 

 ling, like the Epeirae, to bury her capture under a 

 paralyzing \^inding-sheet, she feels it, to make 

 sure of its quality, and then, regardless of kicks, 

 inserts her fangs. 



The bite is usuall\- given at the lower end of 

 a haunch : not that this place is more vulner- 

 able than any other thin-skinned part, but 

 probably because it has a better flavour. The 

 different webs which I inspect to study the 

 food in the larder show me, among other joints, 

 various Flies and small Butterflies and carcasses 

 of almost-untouched Locusts, all deprived of 

 their hind-legs, or at least of one. Locusts' 

 l^s often dangle, emptied of their succulent 

 contents, on the edges of the web, from the meat- 

 hooks of the butcher's shop. In my urchin- 

 da}^, days free from prejudices in regard to 

 what one ate, I, like many others, was able to 

 appreciate that daiuty. It is the equivalent, 

 on a very small scale, of the larger legs of the 

 Crayfish. 



The rigging-builder, therefore, to whom we 

 have just thrown a Locust attacks the prey at 



