68 



SUMMER 



the outer joints of her long legs. I did not disturb 

 her again, but stood by and watched her slowly 

 move off with her encrusting family to a place of 

 safety. 



I had seen these spiders try hard to escape with 

 their egg-sacks before, but had never tested the 

 strength of their purpose. For a time after this ex- 

 perience I made a point of taking the sacks away 

 from every spider I found. Most of them scurried 

 off to seek their own safety ; one of them dropped 

 her sack of her own accord; some of them showed 

 reluctance to leave it ; some of them a disposition to 

 fight; but none of them the fierce, consuming 



mother-fire of the 

 one with the hurt 

 leg. 



A m o ng the 

 fishes, much high- 

 er animal forms 

 than the spiders, 

 we find the mother- 

 love only in the males. 

 It is the male stickleback that 

 builds the nest, then goes out and 

 drives the female in to lay her eggs, 

 then straightway drives her out to 

 prevent her eating them, then puts 

 himself on guard outside the nest to pro- 

 tect them from other sticklebacks and 



