A RACE OF TELEGRAPHERS 9 
tone giving Miss Mabel a nice little congratula¬ 
tory pat. “ I was wondering if any of you were 
going to notice that! Yonder swinging acrobat is 
no balloonist; it belongs to the tribe of jumping 
spiders, and it is one of the keenest little hunters 
imaginable. It swung out there on its drag-line 
to catch some insect winging by, and you may be 
very sure it was successful, too. These little fel¬ 
lows are quicker than scat! They never build a 
web, but lurk along in the shadow on the sides of 
buildings, trees, posts, and the like, and spring 
out upon any passing game which excites their 
fancy. They move sideways or backwards just 
as easily as forwards, and they can jump a con¬ 
siderable distance, as you have just seen. 
“ There are several thousand species of jump¬ 
ing spiders, and all of them are worth knowing. 
Many are bright colored, some glowing in rain¬ 
bow hues, and nearly all have a thick coloring of 
hair or scales. Unlike most of the spider clan, 
the males are as large as the females. They do 
not dress in as gay colors, however, but they make 
up for this by wearing odd bunches and patches 
of hair on their legs. They are inordinately 
proud of their unique ornament, and make it a 
feature of their courtship. Indeed, it is said that, 
in some species, the little duffers dance and caper 
madly before the female whom they wish to at¬ 
tract, striking all sorts of grotesque attitudes, 
