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slaughter each other without mercy. There is scarcely any 
resemblance between the males and females. It appears, 
according to the observations of Degeer, that at the season 
of reproduction, the female receives the male without the 
least movement, or giving him the slightest cause of appre- 
hension. In this respect, the males of this species are far 
more fortunate than most, of their confreres, who, in their 
amorous essays, are in a state of perpetual alarm, lest they 
should be devoured by their mistresses. 
The abdomen of the females enlarges considerably, as the 
time of laying the eggs approaches. The cocoon, composed 
of a loose silk, is placed close by the web. Lister has some- 
times seen two, one by the side of the other, but unequal in 
size, one of which contained the young, and the other the 
eggs. These eggs, tolerably numerous, are of a reddish 
colour, bordering on brown, and not agglutinated together. 
The same observer has found some cocoons in the middle of 
June ; but he has also seen at the commencement of Septem- 
ber, a great number of females with their males, in the same 
webs, and ready to lay. He presumes that the latter conceal 
their cocoons under the moss, and at the roots of old trees, to 
preserve them from the rigours of winter. It is clearly cer- 
tain, that many of these eggs, those probably which have 
been first laid, exclude the young before winter, Lister having 
met, in the month of November, a grea t number of young 
ones of this species casting threads, suspended with them, 
hovering in the air, and repeating these manoeuvres, until they 
had escaped from his hands. 
The E PEIRCE most generally remain at the centre of their 
snare, the body being immersed, or the head downwards. 
But others construct for themselves a dwelling near the web, 
either entirely arched, and sometimes in the form of a silken 
tube, sometimes composed of leaves connected together by 
threads, or open at the top, and like a cup, or a bird’s nest. 
