alf. {37} They
are very pale amber-yellow beads, which do not stick together and which
roll freely as soon as I remove the swan's-down shroud. Let us put
everything into a glass-tube to study the hatching.

We will now retrace our steps a little. When laying-time comes, the
mother forsakes her dwelling, her crater into which her falling victims
dropped, her labyrinth in which the flight of the Midges was cut short;
she leaves intact the apparatus that enabled her to live at her ease.
Thoughtful of her natural duties, she goes to found another establishment
at a distance. Why at a distance?

She has still a few long months to live and she needs nourishment. Were
it not better, then, to lodge the eggs in the immediate neighbourhood of
the present home and to continue her hunting with the excellent snare at
her disposal? The watching of the nest and the easy acquisition of
provender would go hand in hand. The Spider is of another opinion; and I
suspect the reason.

The sheet-net and the labyrinth that surmounts it are objects visible
from afar, owing to their whiteness and the height whereat they are
placed. Their scintillation in the sun, in frequented paths, attracts
Mosquitoes and Butterflies, like the lamps in our rooms and the fowler's
looking-glass. Whoso comes to look at the bright thing too closely dies
the victim of his curiosity. There is nothing better for playing upon
the folly of the passer-by, but also nothing more dangerous to the safety
of the family.

Harpies will not fail to come running at this signal, showing up against
the green; guided by the position of the web, they will assuredly find
the precious purse; and a strange grub, feasting on a hundred new-laid
eggs, will ruin the establishment. I do not know these enemies, not
having sufficient materials at my disposal for a register of the
parasites; but, from indications gathered elsewhere, I suspect them.

The Banded Epeira, trusting to the strength of her stuff, fixes her nest
in the sight of all, hangs it on the brushwood, taking no precautions
whatever to hide it. And a bad business it proves for her. Her jar
provides me with an Ichneumon {38} possessed of the inoculating larding-
pin: a _Cryptus_ who, as a grub, had fed on Spiders' eggs. Nothing but
empty shells was left inside the central keg; the germs were completely
exterminated. There are other Ichneumon-flies, moreover, addicted to
robbing Spiders' nests; a basket of fres