THE STRENGTH OF SPIDERS AND SPIDER-WEBS. 45 



One of the most remarkable records of the physical and me- 

 chanical powers of spiders is made in Silliman's Journal. The ac- 

 count is authenticated by the names and statements of a number 

 of gentlemen resident in the vicinity of the occurrence, Batavia, 

 N. Y. One evening Hon. David E. Evans found in his wine-cel- 

 lar a live striped snake, nine inches long, suspended by the tail in 

 a spider's web between two shelves. The snake hung so that its 

 head could not reach the shelf below it by about an inch. The 

 shelves were about two feet apart, and the lower one was just be- 

 low the bottom of a cellar window, through which the snake prob- 

 ably passed into it. From the upper shelf there hung a web in 

 the shape of an inverted cone, eight or ten inches in diameter at 

 the top, and concentrated to a focus about six or eight inches from 

 the under side of this shelf. From this focus there was a strong 

 cord made of the multiplied threads of the spider's web, appar- 

 ently as large as sewing-silk, and by this cord the snake was sus- 

 pended. A rude sketch of the serpent 

 suspended in the web was made by 

 an eye-witness, and is exactly repro- 

 duced at Fig. 3. A close examination 

 showed that the snake's mouth was 

 entirely closed by a number of threads 

 wound around it. Its tail was tied in 

 a knot so as to leave a small loop or 

 ring, through which the cord was 

 fastened, as seen in the figure. 



Accepting the account as true, or 

 at least probable, I would make the 

 following inferences : First, the de- 

 scription of the web, although suffi- 

 ciently indefinite, leaves little doubt 

 that the snake was originally taken 

 in a snare of a species of tube-weaver, 

 and most probably by the medicinal 

 spider, Tegenaria medicinalis (Hentz). The broad-sheeted web 

 of this spider is frequently found in cellars, which are favorite 

 haunts. It builds near windows, in the angles and along the sides 

 of walls, having its tubular den in a crack or opening laid along 

 an angle (Fig. 4). The sheet is usually drawn upward until its 

 exterior margin is higher than the plane of the entrance of the 

 tube. There is thus formed a sort of pouch within which insects 

 often fall, and so are readily captured by the spider, who mounts 

 guard at the door of her den. Over the door the tube frequently 

 rises into a sort of tower. 



I had often wished for an opportunity to follow up critically 

 one of the recurring reports of the physical powers of spiders. 



Pig. 3. 



-A Snake entangled in a 

 Spider's Web. 



