THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 117 



liime for its toilet — not exactly in combing its hair, as its 

 movements suggest, but in arranging its lace, for it carries 

 little tags of silk disposed over its body. 



Unlike most spiders, Argyroneta is very peaceful, as if 

 its residence in water had cooled its passions. When two 

 meet they go quietly on, unless they are worried by cap- 

 tivity or happen to be very hungry — when, like creatures 

 of higher degree, they are apt to be quarrelsome. The 

 females are patterns of placidity, and are quite free from 

 the reproach of devouring their mates or would-be mates, 

 as their terrestrial cousins often do. It has to be remem- 

 bered in this connexion that they are only about half the 

 size of the males, the reverse of the usual relative propor- 

 tions of the sexes among spiders. Within the silken bell 

 the mother spider carefully disposes the cocoon containing 

 the eggs, but when these hatch and the young spiders begin 

 to fend for themselves, she ceases to show any interest 

 in their movements. Wagner insists that she cares more 

 about the cocoon than its contents, but it is very difficult 

 to get mentally near these children of instiact, and it may 

 be that the impression is as erroneous as that which might 

 be made by a casual observer of mankind who, looking 

 down from a great height, maintained that mothers 

 seemed to give more attention to the cradle or the peram- 

 bulator than to the content of baby. 



V. The Terrestrial Fauna 



The transition from water to dry land has been many 

 times effected in the course of animal evolution. Among 

 backboneless animals, it was negotiated by some of the 

 Protozoa (Amoebae and Inf usorians) that passed from water 

 to damp earth ; by some of the simpler worm- types (various 



