Spiders. 141 



juice out of it and sits chewing on her torn silk till she 

 gets all the gum off it, when she throws it away and be- 

 gins to repair the web. 



Other spiders set their webs flat-wise over hollows on 

 the ground, a favorite location being near a path. All 

 the flying and jumping things get out of the way when 

 a man comes along, and not looking where they leap, they 

 make business good. Of course, the man often spoils 

 the web, but, la! that doesn't worry the spider any. 

 There's plenty more where that came from, and, anyhow, 

 she has to spin to pass away the time. By the way, 

 most of their spinning is done at night. In the daytime 

 they take little naps when there is nothing doing. Of 

 these flat-webs some are spun in bushes with a labyrinth 

 of threads running up two or three feet among the twigs 

 over a sort of umbrella-like disk under which the spiders 

 wait. Other little spiders are often permitted to make 

 use of this labyrinth for their own needs, or perhaps it 

 is too much trouble to stop the poaching. There is^. a 

 good deal of that kind of broad-minded charity in the 

 world. 



A little bit like this dome-shaped snare in the bush is 

 the silken diving bell that the water spiders make on the 

 stems of aquatic plants. There is an opening below, and 

 whenever it begins to get a little stuffy in the nest, which 

 is about half as big as an acorn, mamma goes up to the 

 surface and brings down an armful of air. It often takes 

 fourteen or fifteen trips, but she does not seem to mind 

 the bother. I suppose the spiders that live under boards 

 and stones must often say to themselves: " Mercy! what 

 a way to live," but I can assure them that it is quite dry 

 and cozy, and not at all malarious, and then, too, think 

 what a comfort it must be not to have to lie awake 

 nights and listen to those plagued crickets chirp, chirp. 



