e 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 XIII: THE GARDEN SPIDERS: PAIRING AND HUNTING

Notwithstanding the importance of the subject, I shall not enlarge upon
the nuptials of the Epeirae, grim natures whose loves easily turn to
tragedy in the mystery of the night. I have but once been present at the
pairing and for this curious experience I must thank my lucky star and my
fat neighbour, the Angular Epeira, whom I visit so often by
lantern-light. Here you have it.

It is the first week of August, at about nine o'clock in the evening,
under a perfect sky, in calm, hot weather. The Spider has not yet
constructed her web and is sitting motionless on her suspension-cable.
The fact that she should be slacking like this, at a time when her
building-operations ought to be in full swing, naturally astonishes me.
Can something unusual be afoot?

Even so. I see hastening up from the neighbouring bushes and embarking
on the cable a male, a dwarf, who is coming, the whipper-snapper, to pay
his respects to the portly giantess. How has he, in his distant corner,
heard of the presence of the nymph ripe for marriage? Among the Spiders,
these things are learnt in the silence of the night, without a summons,
without a signal, none knows how.

Once, the Great Peacock, {32} apprised by the magic effluvia, used to
come from miles around to visit the recluse in her bell-jar in my study.
The dwarf of this evening, that other nocturnal pilgrim, crosses the
intricate tangle of the branches without a mistake and makes straight for
the rope-walker. He has as his guide the infallible compass that brings
every Jack and his Jill together.

He climbs the slope of the suspension-cord; he advances circumspectly,
step by step. He stops some distance away, irresolute. Shall he go
closer? Is this the right moment? No. The other lifts a limb and the
scared visitor hurries down again. Recovering from his fright, he climbs
up once more, draws a little nearer. More sudden flights, followed by
fresh approaches, each time nigher than before. This restless running to
and fro is the declaration of the enamoured sw