he powerless victim, and gives the
fatal bite on the hinder part of its thorax; then retreating,
patiently waits till the poison has taken effect. The virulence of
this poison may be judged from the fact that in half a minute I opened
the mesh, and found a large wasp quite lifeless. This Epeira always
stands with its head downwards near the centre of the web. When
disturbed, it acts differently according to circumstances: if there is
a thicket below, it suddenly falls down; and I have distinctly seen
the thread from the spinners lengthened by the animal while yet
stationary, as preparatory to its fall. If the ground is clear
beneath, the Epeira seldom falls, but moves quickly through a central
passage from one side to the other. When still further disturbed, it
practises a most curious manoeuvre: Standing in the middle, it
violently jerks the web, which is attached to elastic twigs, till at
last the whole acquires such a rapid vibratory movement, that even the
outline of the spider's body becomes indistinct.

[Illustration: FOUR DIFFERENT SPIDERS.]

It is well known that most of the British spiders, when a large insect
is caught in their webs, endeavor to cut the lines and liberate their
prey, to save their nests from being entirely spoiled. I once,
however, saw in a hot-house in Shropshire a large female wasp caught
in the irregular web of a quite small spider; and this spider, instead
of cutting the web, most perseveringly continued to entangle the body,
and especially the wings, of its prey. The wasp at first aimed in vain
repeated thrusts with its sting at its little antagonist. Pitying the
wasp, after allowing it to struggle for more than an hour, I killed it
and put it back into the web. The spider soon returned; and an hour
afterwards I was much surprised to find it with its jaws buried in the
orifice, through which the sting is protruded by the living wasp. I
drove the spider away two or three times, but for the next twenty-four
hours I always found it again sucking at the same place. The spider
became much distended by the juices of its prey, which was many times
larger than itself.

I may here just mention, that I found near St. Fe Bajada, many large
black spiders, with ruby-colored marks on their backs, having
gregarious habits. The webs were placed vertically, as is invariably
the case with the genus Epeira; they were separated from each other by
a space of about two feet, but were all attached to certain