females, who commonly stand by, interested spectators.”[133] Then there is a small ant-like species, who, “unlike most of the _Attid_ males, keeps all his feet on the ground during his courtship. Raising himself on the tips of the posterior six, he slightly inclines his head downwards by bending his front legs, their convex surface being always turned forward. His abdomen is lifted vertically, so that it is at a right angle to the rest of his body. In this position he sways from side to side. After a moment he drops the abdomen, runs a few steps nearer the female, and then tips his body and begins to sway again. Now he runs in one direction, now in another, pausing every few moments to rock from side to side and to bend his brilliant legs, so that she may look full at them.”[133] What can be clearer than this? And here, indeed, the authors remark: “We were much impressed by the fact that the attitude taken by the males served perfectly to show off their fine points to the female. We had never known the male of this species until the day that we caught this one and put him into the mating-box, and it was while studying his courtship that we noticed how he differed from the female in his iridescent first legs. He could not have chosen a better position than the one he took to make a display.”[133] Elsewhere, in another experiment with the same species, the authors, after remarking that if these specially modified front legs were held in any other way the effect of the flattened and iridescent surface would be lost, go on to say: “This is a good example of what we have again and again observed in the courtship of the _Attidæ_: that whatever fine points of colour or structure the male possesses, his actions before the female display them to the very best advantage. In whatever part the special merit may lie, he sedulously strives to bring it to the notice and impress its beauty upon the mind of the female to whom he is paying his addresses.”[133] As for the female, she is throughout described as watching the male eagerly and with the greatest interest, and that this interest is not always felt from the first, but is aroused by degrees, becoming, at last, so strong as to suspend for a time the natural inclination to assault and eat the wooer, is all the more significant. That there are dangers in these courtships there has been some indication, “but worse remains behind.” _Phidippus rufus_ was caught once and eaten in an unguarded moment, and whilst _Phidippus morsitans_ was waving his particularly handsome first pair of legs, “thickly adorned with white hairs,” precisely the same thing happened to him. Still, on the whole, such incidents are exceptional.