Garden Spiders: Pairing and Hunting 



cable a male, a dwarf, who is coming, the 

 wlupper-snapper, to pay his respects to the 

 portly giantess. How has he, in his distant 

 comer, heard of the pr^ence of the nymph 

 ripe for marriage ? Among the Spiders, these 

 things are learnt in the silence of the night, 

 widiout a stimmons, without a signal, none 

 knows how. 



Once, the Great Peacock,* apprised by the 

 magic efflmna, used to come from miles 

 around to visit the recluse in her bell-jar in my 

 study. The dwarf of this evening, that other 

 nocturnal pilgrim, crosses the intricate tangle 

 of the branches without a mistake and makes 

 straight for the rope-walker. He has as his 

 guide the infallible compass that brings every 

 Ja(^ and his Jill together. 



He climbs the slope of the suspension- 

 cord; he advances circumspecdy, step by step. 

 He stops some distance away, irresolute. 

 Shall he go closer ? Is this the right moment ? 

 No. The other lifts a limb and the scared 

 visitor hurries down again. Recovering from 

 his fright, he climbs up once more, draws a 



' Cf . Socid Life in th^ Imsect WorU. by J. H. Fabre. 

 translated bT Bernard Miall: d&p. yix. — Tramdatof's 

 Not*. 



397 



