60 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



and contented himself with "daring her out" 

 by strumming on the cords again. She was un- 

 easy and angry, but as he ventured nearer there 

 was nothing to do but fight or retreat, so she 

 fairly sprang upon him. But he was not asleep ; 

 they clinched and kicked, and bit, till they lost 

 their grip on the lines and fell out of sight, 

 locked in as venomous and spiteful an embrace 

 as one could witness. Two tigers could not 

 have outdone them in every appearance of anger. 

 The female generally wins. She will kill and 

 eat the male who would have been the father 

 of her brood. 



Let us go back on our track a little. When 

 a true bug or beetle or fly is hatched, a worm is 

 the first result not a true worm but a grub, 

 and it matures by undergoing many changes. 

 A spider is born complete. As he increases in 

 size he sheds or moults his skin or shell like 

 lobsters. They have six pairs of limbs: four 

 pairs are used for legs; a pair of palpi, or 

 feelers, used also for other purposes ; a hinder 

 pair of legs are used to guide the thread. 

 They are furnished with three claws and a 

 brush of fine hair ; the other legs are clawed in 

 the same way. On the under side, a little 

 behind the first pair of legs, are two nostrils, 

 concealed by covers. At the end of the body, 



