The Crab Spider 



with a pimple shaped like a camel's hump. 

 The skin, more pleasing to the eye than any 

 satin, is milk-white in some, in others lemon- 

 yellow. There are fine ladies among them 

 who adorn their legs with a number of pink 

 bracelets and their back with carmine ara- 

 besques. A narrow pale-green ribbon some- 

 times edges the right and left of the breast. 

 It is not so rich as the costume of the Banded 

 Epeira, but much more elegant because of its 

 soberness, its daintiness and the artful blend- 

 ing of its hues. Novice fingers, which shrink 

 from touching any other Spider, allow them- 

 selves to be enticed by these attractions; they 

 do not fear to handle the beauteous Thomisus, 

 so gentle in appearance. 



Well, what can this gem among Spiders do? 

 In the first place she makes a nest worthy of 

 its architect. With twigs and horse-hair and 

 bits of wool, the Goldfinch, the Chaffinch and 

 other masters of the builder's art construct an 

 aerial bower in the fork of the branches. 

 Herself a lover of high places, the Thomisus 

 selects as the site of her nest one of the upper 

 twigs of the rock-rose, her regular hunting- 

 ground, a twig withered by the heat and pos- 

 sessing a few dead leaves, which curl into a 

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