NATURE'S GEOMETRICIANS 



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PIDERS form good subjects for a rainy- 

 day study, and two hours spent in a 

 neglected garret watching these clever 

 little beings will often arouse such inter- 

 est that we shall be glad to devote many days of sun- 

 shine to observing those species which hunt and build, 

 and live their lives in the open fields. There is no insect 

 in the world with more than six legs, and as a spider has 

 eight he is therefore thrown out of the company of 

 butterflies, beetles, and wasps and finds himself in a 

 strange assemblage. Even to his nearest relatives he 

 bears little resemblance, for when we realise that scor- 

 pions and horseshoe crabs must call him cousin, we per- 

 ceive that his is indeed an aberrant bough on the tree of 

 creation. 



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