The Clot ho Spider 341 



of her home. But this cannot be her aim. To 

 act Hke the ogre who hangs his victims from 

 the castle battlements is the worst way to 

 disarm suspicion in the passers-by whom you 

 are lying in wait to capture. 



There are other reasons which increase our 

 doubts. The shells hung up are most often 

 empty ; but there are also some occupied by 

 the Snail, alive and untouched. What can the 

 Clotho do with a Pwpa cinerea, a Pupa quad- 

 ridens and other narrow spirals wherein the 

 animal retreats to an inaccessible depth ? The 

 Spider is incapable of breaking the calcareous 

 shell or of getting at the hermit through the 

 opening. Then why should she collect those 

 prizes, whose slimy flesh is probably not to her 

 taste ? We begin to suspect a simple question 

 of ballast and balance. The House Spider, or 

 Tegenaria domestica, prevents her web, spun in 

 a corner of the wall, from losing its shape at the 

 least breath of air, by loading it with crumbling 

 plaster and allowing tiny fragments of mortar 

 to accumulate. Are we face to face with a 

 similar process ? Let us try experiment, which 

 is preferable to any amount of conjecture. 



