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HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP. 



this occurrence reveals the fact that these spiders 

 have a way of adapting themselves to circumstances 

 that is perhaps unparalleled ; and the whole trans- 

 action may well suggest the following queries. Did 

 this doomed spider know that death could only be 

 escaped by the amputation of the injured limb ? 

 Did it know that Nature, peculiarly kind in its 

 case, would supply another leg to make up the de- 



ficiency? And how did this high precept ever come 

 within the palejof its comprehension, — " If thy right 

 hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee " ? 

 Another habit that I have observed in some of 

 the Epeira spiders is that of laying up a store of 

 food in the cocoon, evidently for the sustenance of 

 the young spiders from the time they leave the egg 

 till they leave the cocoon. On examining one of 



Fig. 152. Fac-simile of Spider's Web, made by a Spider just out of Cocoon, and obtained by dyeing:. 



Fig. 153. Facsimile of two Spiders' Webs, one in front of the other ; one completely, the other partially, constructed. 



