SPIDEJRS EMOTIONS. 205 



called ' the law of battle,' must obviously be a constant 

 source of the creation and the maintenance of specific 

 proficiency ; the law of battle determines that only the 

 strongest and most courageous males shall breed. But 

 the benefit to species is not so obvious where the danger 

 of courtship arises from the side of the female. Still, that 

 there must be some benefit is obvious, seeing that the 

 whole structure of the male, if we take that of the female 

 as the original type, has been greatly modified with refer- 

 ence to this danger : had the latter been wholly useless, 

 either it would not have been allowed to arise, or the 

 species must have become extinct. The only suggestion 

 I can make to meet this aberrant case is that the courage 

 and determination required of the male, besides being no 

 doubt of use to him in other relations in life, may be of 

 benefit to the species by instilling these qualities into the 

 psychology both of his male and female descendants. 



The courage and rapacity of spiders as a class are too 

 well and generally known to require special illustration. 

 One instance, however, may be quoted to show the strength 

 of their maternal emotions. Bonnet threw a spider with 

 her bag of eggs into the pit of an ant-lion. The latter 

 seized the eggs and tore them away from the spider ; but 

 although Bonnet forced her out of the pit, she returned, 

 and chose to be dragged in and buried alive rather than 

 leave her charge. 



The only other point that occurs to me with reference 

 to the emotions of spiders is the somewhat remarkable one 

 concerning their apparent fondness of music. The testi- 

 mony is so varied and abundant on this matter that we 

 can scarcely doubt the truth of the facts. These simply 

 are that spiders or at any rate some species or individuals 

 approach a sounding musical instrument, * especially 

 when the music is tender and not too loud.' They usually 

 approach as near as possible, often letting themselves down 

 from the ceiling of the room by a line of web, and remain 

 suspended above the instrument. Should the music 

 become loud, they often again retreat. Professor C. 

 Reclain, during a concert at Leipsic, saw a spider descend 

 in this way from one of the chandeliers while a violin solo 



