128 THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



legist's " kitchen-middens " ; rooks sometimes let fresh- 

 water mussels drop from a height on to the gravel, and it 

 was thus that a Greek eagle killed the poet ^Eschylus by 

 letting a tortoise drop on his bald head, which glistened like 

 a white stone ; the oyster-catcher knocks the limpet off the 

 rock with a dexterous stroke of its strong bill ; the grey 

 shrike stakes its victims on thorns. 



Of hunting by means of snares the best illustrations are 

 of course afforded by spiders, of which one instance may 

 be given, on the authority of Dr. Emil Goeldi, formerly 

 Director of the Museum in Para. It concerns an early 

 rising spider, Epeiroides bahiensis, which was common in 

 Goeldi's garden at Para, though the web was never to be 

 seen. The Director's son, a boy of seven, determined to 

 sit up all night to solve the mystery, and he discovered a 

 very interesting peculiarity. The spider makes its web in the 

 early hours, but rolls it up and decamps with it after the 

 sun rises. Penelope-like it destroys its web daily, but not 

 without result to man as well as to itself, for it catches the 

 minute-winged males of the destructive Coccus insects, of 

 Dorthesia americana in particular. After retiring under the 

 shade of a leaf, the spider investigates the insects in its rolled- 

 up net, and spends the hot hours in digesting their juices. 

 Its behaviour reminded Dr. Goeldi of a southern bird- 

 catcher hastily gathering his roccolo together as the dawn 

 breaks, but with this difference, that the spider " does not 

 stop to pull out the captives, wring their necks, and throw 

 them into a bag. It gathers up its net and postpones the 

 work of revision until it gets home." 



Fishing is only a variety of hunting, but may be con- 

 sidered separately for a moment. Typical of the patient 

 angler, the heron stands by the pool-side still as a statue, 

 but able to strike with almost electric suddenness, or fly 

 away with dignity if we disturb his fishing. But perhaps 



