ritation. She wants a venison for consumption without delay
and brutally thrusts her fangs into the spot which the others so
conscientiously respect.

If the instinct of these scientific murderers is not, in both cases, an
inborn predisposition, inseparable from the animal, but an acquired
habit, then I rack my brain in vain to understand how that habit can have
been acquired. Shroud these facts in theoretic mists as much as you
will, you shall never succeed in veiling the glaring evidence which they
afford of a pre-established order of things.

CHAPTER II: THE BANDED EPEIRA

In the inclement season of the year, when the insect has nothing to do
and retires to winter quarters, the observer profits by the mildness of
the sunny nooks and grubs in the sand, lifts the stones, searches the
brushwood; and often he is stirred with a pleasurable excitement, when he
lights upon some ingenious work of art, discovered unawares. Happy are
the simple of heart whose ambition is satisfied with such treasure-trove!
I wish them all the joys which it has brought me and which it will
continue to bring me, despite the vexations of life, which grow ever more
bitter as the years follow their swift downward course.

Should the seekers rummage among the wild grasses in the osier-beds and
copses, I wish them the delight of finding the wonderful object that, at
this moment, lies before my eyes. It is the work of a Spider, the nest
of the Banded Epeira (_Epeira fasciata_, LATR.).

A Spider is not an insect, according to the rules of classification; and
as such the Epeira seems out of place here. {16} A fig for systems! It
is immaterial to the student of instinct whether the animal have eight
legs instead of six, or pulmonary sacs instead of air-tubes. Besides,
the Araneida belong to the group of segmented animals, organized in
sections placed end to end, a structure to which the terms 'insect' and
'entomology' both refer.

Formerly, to describe this group, people said 'articulate animals,' an
expression which possessed the drawback of not jarring on the ear and of
being understood by all. This is out of date. Nowadays, they use the
euphonious term 'Arthropoda.' And to think that there are men who
question the existence of progress! Infidels! Say, 'articulate,' first;
then roll out, 'Arthropoda;' and you shall see whether zoological science
is not progressing!

In bearing and colouring, _Epeira fasciata_ is the handsomes