Garden Spiders: Question of Property 



she were numbed with terror. And she has 

 reason to be : the other is watching her from 

 her lofty loop-hole. 



This is probably not the only cause of her 

 fright. When my straw does induce her to 

 take a few steps, I see her lift her legs with 

 some difficulty. She tugs a bit, drags her tarsi 

 till she almost breaks the supporting threads. 

 It is not the progress of an agile rope-walker; 

 it is the hesitating gait of entangled feet. 

 Perhaps the lime-threads are stickier than in 

 her own web. The glue is of a different 

 quality ; and her sandals are not greased to the 

 extent which the new degree of adhesiveness 

 would demand. 



Anyhow, things remain as they are for long 

 hours on end : the Banded Epeira motionless 

 on the edge of the web; the other lurking in 

 her hut; both apparently most imeasy. At 

 sunset, the lover of darkness plucks up 

 courage. She descends from her green tent 

 and, without troubling about the stranger, 

 goes straight to the centre of the web, where 

 the telegraph-wire brings her. Panic-stridcen 

 at diis apparition, the Banded Epeira releases 

 herself with a jerk and disappears in the 

 rosemary-thidcet. 



537 



