A BEAST OF PREY 69 



not be going too far to say that the geometrical 

 web-makers are the most advanced and civilised 

 members of the entire group. For there are 

 degrees of evolution among these hunting car- 

 nivores. Some of the least advanced kinds merely 

 stalk or hunt down their prey on the open. These 

 lower savages among the spider tribe lurk under 

 stones or in the crevices of bark, and rush out at 

 their victims, or spring upon them unawares. One 

 may compare them to such low hunting human 

 races as the natives of New Guinea or the North 

 American Indians. Others, again, construct tubes, 

 with or without trap-doors, and catch their prey 

 more or less cunningly near the entrance. Yet 

 others, once more, weave irregular webs, among 

 leaves and twigs, or in the corners of rooms, and 

 trust rather to mere meshes than to sticky sub- 

 stances. But the geometrical web-weavers, the 

 most advanced of their kind, have learned by the 

 experience of ages how to construct a regular 

 snare, on a fixed ground-plan, and to supplement 

 it by a singular trick of beady bird-lime. 



Even among the geometrical web-weavers them- 

 selves, again, there are marked varieties of progress 

 and culture. For some kinds have only three 

 claws to each foot, while others have more ; and 

 there are certain species which possess in addition 

 a sort of opposable thumb, so that they can catch 

 things as with a hand, feeling them all round, 

 and grasping their threads as a sailor grasps a 

 cable. Such opposable thumbs are always accom- 

 panied by high intelligence, as one sees in man, 



