WOOING SPIDEK'S ANTICS 171 



throwing out from spray to spray, she moved round 

 on her flower to keep him in sight; but though fas- 

 cinated and drawn to her, he still dreaded, and was 

 pulled by his fear and his desire in opposite ways. 

 The excitement of both would increase whenever he 

 came a little nearer, and their attitudes were then 

 sometimes very curious, the most singular being one 

 ol the male when he would raise his body vertically 

 in the air and stand on his two pairs of forelegs. 

 When very near, they would extend the long forelegs 

 and touch one another ; but always at this point when 

 they were closest and the excitement greatest a panic 

 would seize him, and he would make haste to get to 

 a safer distance. On two such occasions she, as if 

 afraid to lose him altogether, quitted her beloved 

 flower and moved after him, and after wandering 

 about for some time to no purpose, found another 

 flower- cluster to settle on. And so the queer wooing 

 went on, and seemed no nearer to a conclusion, when, 

 to my surprise, I found that I had been sitting and 

 lying there, with eyes close to the female spider, for 

 an hour and a half. Once only, feeling a little bored, 

 I gently stroked her on the back, which appeared to 

 please her as much as if she had been a pig and I 

 had scratched her back with my walking-stick. But 

 no sooner had the soothing effect passed off than she 

 began again watching the movements of that fan- 

 tastic little lover of hers, who loved her for her beau- 

 tiful white body, but feared her on account of those 



