144 The Book of Bugs. 



spider kept stirring up the mouse by biting it so as to 

 get another line on it. I can just imagine that spider 

 after she had worked all day hauling on lines and holloa- 

 ing, ' Yo-hee! " to her children that were helping her- 

 if, indeed, they didn't stand round and let her do all the 

 work. ' Law! " she gasped, when the prize was finally 

 landed in the nest, " I'm just done out! But, my! 'Twas 

 worth it. Phew! Why, come in, Mrs. Linyphia. 

 Haint seen you I don't know when. Children, get up 

 and let Mrs. Linyphia set down. Aint you got no man- 

 ners at all? Run along now and don't be gawking at 

 the company, like you never seen nobody before. Yes, 

 I done it all myself, and it just about tuckered me, Mrs. 

 Linyphia. I don't know's I'll ever get over it. I 

 strained my back turrable lifting so hard, but I thinks to 

 myself, ' I'll mebby never git another chance to git so 

 much meat in to once, and my family is such turrable 

 eaters.' " 



And this adventure with a mouse is not the only case 

 on record where spiders have done deeds of high em- 

 prise. The Hon. David E. Evans, of Batavia, N. Y., 

 saw a striped snake nine inches long caught and killed by 

 a spider, its mouth shut up with threads of silk and its 

 tail tied to a knot so as to form a loop, through which 

 was reeved a cord as strong as sewing silk made of multi- 

 plied threads and run up over a sort of pulley of which a 

 dead fly was the core. Maybe you think that is a pretty 

 able-bodied yarn, but what do you call the statement that 

 a Dolomcdcs spider has been seen to catch and land a fish? 

 No, I'm sure I've got it right. It wasn't the fish that 

 caught the spider. There wouldn't be any story in that 

 at all. It was the spider that caught the fish. It leaped 

 on the fish's shoulders, and bit and bit and swung ashore 

 and fastened lines till it warped the fish out of water. It 



