The Banded Epeira 



sume her hunting-post, to return to her web 

 would be useless to her: she has not the 

 wherewithal to bind the prey. Besides, the 

 fine appetite of former days has gone. 

 Withered and languid, she drags out her ex- 

 istence for a few days and, at last, dies. This 

 is how things happen in my cages; this is how 

 they must happen in the brushwood. 



The Silky Epeira (Epeira sericea, OLIV.) 

 excels the Banded Epeira in the manufacture 

 of big hunting-nets, but she is less gifted in 

 the art of nest-building. She gives her nest 

 the inelegant form of an obtuse cone. The 

 opening of this pocket is very wide and is 

 scalloped into lobes by which the edifice is 

 slung. It is closed with a large lid, half satin, 

 half swan's-down. The rest is a stout white 

 fabric, frequently covered with irregular 

 brown streaks. 



The difference between the work of the 

 two Epeiras does not extend beyond the wrap- 

 per, which is an obtuse cone in the one case 

 and a balloon in the other. The same in- 

 ternal arrangements prevail behind this front- 

 age: first, a flossy quilt; next, a little keg in 

 which the eggs are packed. Though the two 

 Spiders build the outer wall according to 



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