en returns to where she stopped and continues the spiral in the same
order as before.

At the commencement of the work, gyration in one direction being employed
as well as gyration in the other, we see that, when making her repeated
webs, the same Epeira turns now her right side, now her left to the
centre of the coil. Well, as we have said, it is always with the inner
hind-leg, the leg nearer the centre, that is to say, in some cases the
right and in some cases the left leg, that she places the thread in
position, an exceedingly delicate operation calling for the display of
exquisite skill, because of the quickness of the action and the need for
preserving strictly equal distances. Any one seeing this leg working
with such extreme precision, the right leg to-day, the left to-morrow,
becomes convinced that the Epeira is highly ambidextrous.

CHAPTER X: THE GARDEN SPIDERS: MY NEIGHBOUR

Age does not modify the Epeira's talent in any essential feature. As the
young worked, so do the old, the richer by a year's experience. There
are no masters nor apprentices in their guild; all know their craft from
the moment that the first thread is laid. We have learnt something from
the novices: let us now look into the matter of their elders and see what
additional task the needs of age impose upon them.

July comes and gives me exactly what I wish for. While the new
inhabitants are twisting their ropes on the rosemaries in the enclosure,
one evening, by the last gleams of twilight, I discover a splendid
Spider, with a mighty belly, just outside my door. This one is a matron;
she dates back to last year; her majestic corpulence, so exceptional at
this season, proclaims the fact. I know her for the Angular Epeira
(_Epeira angulata_, WALCK.), clad in grey and girdled with two dark
stripes that meet in a point at the back. The base of her abdomen swells
into a short nipple on either side.

This neighbour will certainly serve my turn, provided that she do not
work too late at night. Things bode well: I catch the buxom one in the
act of laying her first threads. At this rate my success need not be won
at the expense of sleep. And, in fact, I am able, throughout the month
of July and the greater part of August, from eight to ten o'clock in the
evening, to watch the construction of the web, which is more or less
ruined nightly by the incidents of the chase and built up again, next
day, when too seriously dilapidated.