SPIDERS. 181 



wards. Some kinds of Spider have, near the princi- 

 pal web, a silken retreat, or den, where the owner 

 hides till the quivering spider-lines which run into its 

 office telegraph the fact that a fly has become entan- 

 gled ; instantly the spider rushes out of its retreat, 

 pounces upon the victim, and bites it, if possible, put- 

 ting into the wound a fatal poison. If the insect be 

 too powerful for the spider, the latter waits till the 

 insect gets more entangled, and finally exhausted, by 

 its efforts to escape, then binds it with silken bands, and 

 begins to devour it. The bite of an ordinary spider 

 will kill a fly ; the bite of some of the large kinds in 

 South America kills the humming-bird ; and some- 

 times men are killed by a spider's bite. The female 

 spiders lay eggs and enclose them in silken sacs. Some 

 kinds carry the egg-sac about with them ; others spin 

 it in a safe place, and, in some instances, stay near to 

 guard it, and to tear open the egg-sac as soon as the 

 young are hatched, that they may escape. One of the 

 most curious of these egg-sacs is that shown in Figure 

 341, and which was made by some spider which we do 



Fig. 341. Egg-case of a Spider, the Vase-Maker. 



not yet know, but which may properly be called the Vase- 

 Maker. Two " vases," like the one in the woodcut, 

 were found standing about a foot apart on the stem 

 of a grape-vine. The outside of the vase looks like 

 brown paper, or it is in appearance and in tough- 



