COCOON LIFE AND BABYHOOD. 255 



preached. There was a sharp contact, a momentary whirl of confused legs, 

 a retreat by the maker of the orb, who dropped from her snare quite to 



the table, where she lay in the characteristic mimicry of death. 

 Feigning ^his behavior conscious feigning or unconscious paralysis, as the 

 j , case may be is shown by the youngest spiders when they are 



touched upon their webs, or handled when off them. Like the 

 aeronautic habit, swinging by dropthread and foot basket (Fig. 268), snare 

 weaving, and enswathing the prey, it also springs into being as a per- 

 fectly developed instinct. 



The intruder upon the snare followed the owner a little way towards 

 the confines of her abandoned domain, then returned to the hub, and de- 

 liberately settled herself in the natural attitude, as much at home as though 

 she had herself spun the orb. The little exile meanwhile recovered from 

 her paralysis and climbed over to the standard of the lamp, where I left 

 her. The actions of these two spiders showed the most determined hostility, 

 and I have no doubt that, had either gained the mastery, the other would 

 have been fed upon. On the contrary, those of the brood hanging upon 

 the commons swung cheek by jowl without the slightest demonstration of 

 a cannibal propensity. I believe that the ordinary brood fraternity is 

 broken with the spinning of the first snare, at whose construction the 

 natural solitary and ferocious character of the creature, and all its wonder- 

 ful instincts, heretofore dominant, are vivified and spring into active exer- 

 cise. Possibly the little chappies are as much surprised as their human 

 observer to find themselves possessed of such strange powers. 



