and they aremore than gliders or sailors , more than or rulers or protectors , these birds , for they are brilliant , these birds , inventors of much wonderthey are spinners of webs , of clever and oh , so very deadly webs , for these webs , once spun , are spun into un-spun and no longer exist , they are un-webs , only once-thought webs , only the unseen form , the vanished imprint of webs ; a so specific lack of web that the unsuspecting prey will unseeingly glide into it and at first only sense as patterned vacuum , as faint whisper of danger this web , a whisper that the better to hear he then heeds , and so heeding expends first attention then energy in the direction of ; an attention and energy , a heeding now avidly drunk by this utter and precise lack of web to spur its forming , to gender its ensnaring and ensnaring further and further as the quarry first panics then rages at such cunning only to see his panic and rage further strengthen each loop and strand to tighten their hold , ever strengthening with every effort , every energy expended by the ensnared who now , for all intents and purposes is frantically creating his own entrapmentsuch is the brilliance of the intergalactic birdfor were this prey only , for a moment , to utterly un-see , un-sense , and un-feed this web , he would be utterly free and on his way ; but as yet , not since the inception of this incarnation of the universe has a single quarry solved this birdy and webby riddle ; instead struggling , raging , they forever keep their bonds alive and binding .