20 SPIDERS [CH. 



are utilised as far as possible, but it can hardly 

 happen that the spider never touches adhesive 

 portions of the web with legs or body. 



Possibly some explanation is furnished by an 

 ingenious experiment which Fabre performed. He 

 found that a glass rod, lightly smeared with oil, did 

 not adhere to the viscid spiral ; neither did a leg 

 freshly taken from a garden-spider unless allowed to 

 remain in contact for a considerable time. When, 

 however, this leg had been washed with bisulphide 

 of carbon, which dissolves any kind of oily substance, 

 it adhered at once. It would seem likelv, therefore, 



/ / 



that the legs and body of the spider itself are 

 protected by some oily exudation from any danger of 

 adherence to its own lines. 



CHAPTER IV 



MENTAL POWERS OF SPIDERS 



BEFORE leaving the garden-spider let us undertake 

 some little investigation of its mental powers if it 

 possesses any. The commonest mistake with regard 

 to all animals is to interpret their actions from the 

 human standpoint, and to credit them with emotions 

 and with deliberate forethought of which there is in 



