18 
NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN 
ily recognize one from its broad, stubby crab-like 
characteristics, and the fact that it advances side- 
wise with great dexterity, making much swifter 
speed in this hitching fashion than it can either 
forwards or backwards. Crab-spiders weave no 
snares. Some run down their prey, but most of 
them prefer to ambush it. Their favorite place 
of concealment is in the heart of a flower; hence 
most of them are of brilliant colors, the better to 
conceal their identity from the insects which come 
nectar hunting. The changeable fellow I men¬ 
tioned, the past-master of the lot, usually parks 
in the white Trillium, the fleabane, and other 
white flowers in early spring; at this season its 
ground color is white. In short, it harmonizes in 
color and markings with its surroundings. In the 
fall, the colony migrates to the goldenrod, and, 
as has been proven time and again, in a week or 
ten days these white spiders turn to a yellow so 
nearly matching their host that it takes a sharp 
eye to detect the motionless spider against the 
goldenrod. 
“ Interesting as are the various spiders and 
their webs, a spider’s nursery surpasses all. 
Moreover, each species constructs its egg-sacs, as 
the nurseries are termed, according to a definite 
pattern; so that it is even easier to name the 
nurseries than it is to name the spiders them¬ 
selves. The simplest kind of an egg-sac is 
