A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
I/O 
of the house. If you search the premises you will find her 
lord, a paltry thing of a reddish colour and about one 
quarter of an inch in length. He is Mr. Mantalini and 
lives entirely on her earnings. She would assuredly eat 
him if she could catch him, but he is circumspect and 
keeps out of her way. Besides Mr. M. I have sometimes 
found a small silvery spider of a different species about the 
outskirts of the web. This, I imagine, fills the place which 
in our system is taken by the pariah dog, who sneaks about 
our compound, filling his shrunken stomach with what we 
throw away. 
Judging by the size of this great spider and the strength 
of her web, I used to think she might easily catch a Sun- 
bird, or a small Tree Warbler, but I find she is not nearly 
so formidable as she looks. In fact she is a “ feckless ” 
creature. When a moth or a beetle gets entangled in her 
web, she hurries down, and seizing it with her jaws, 
tries to haul it up to her seat ; but if it is strong enough 
to resist this treatment, it may easily break away and 
escape. 
There is a far more deadly spider not half her size, which 
spreads its beautiful circular net in our gardens. In the 
centre is a round space, with four little strips of white 
