plunged into the back of her hut, the Epeira
certainly cannot see her web. Even if she had good sight, instead of
being purblind, her position could not possibly allow her to keep the
prey in view. Does she give up hunting during this period of bright
sunlight? Not at all. Look again.

Wonderful! One of her hind-legs is stretched outside the leafy cabin;
and the signalling-thread ends just at the tip of that leg. Whoso has
not seen the Epeira in this attitude, with her hand, so to speak, on
the telegraph-receiver, knows nothing of one of the most curious
instances of animal cleverness. Let any game appear upon the scene; and
the slumberer, forthwith aroused by means of the leg receiving the
vibrations, hastens up. A Locust whom I myself lay on the web procures
her this agreeable shock and what follows. If she is satisfied with her
bag, I am still more satisfied with what I have learnt.

One word more. The web is often shaken by the wind. The different parts
of the framework, tossed and teased by the eddying air-currents, cannot
fail to transmit their vibration to the signalling-thread.
Nevertheless, the Spider does not quit her hut and remains indifferent
to the commotion prevailing in the net. Her line, therefore, is
something better than a bell-rope that pulls and communicates the
impulse given: it is a telephone capable, like our own, of transmitting
infinitesimal waves of sound. Clutching her telephone-wire with a toe,
the Spider listens with her leg; she perceives the innermost
vibrations; she distinguishes between the vibration proceeding from a
prisoner and the mere shaking caused by the wind.

CHAPTER 11. THE EUMENES.

A wasp-like garb of motley black and yellow; a slender and graceful
figure; wings not spread out flat, when resting, but folded lengthwise
in two; the abdomen a sort of chemist's retort, which swells into a
gourd and is fastened to the thorax by a long neck, first distending
into a pear, then shrinking to a thread; a leisurely and silent flight;
lonely habits. There we have a summary sketch of the Eumenes. My part
of the country possesses two species: the larger, Eumenes Amedei, Lep.,
measures nearly an inch in length; the other, Eumenes pomiformis,
Fabr., is a reduction of the first to the scale of one-half. (I include
three species promiscuously under this one name, that is to say,
Eumenes pomiformis, Fabr., E. bipunctis, Sauss., and E. dubius, Sauss.
As I did not distinguish between the