Memhers in Spiders and Insects, 431 



remount to its original haunt, it was crossing the table in search of some 

 place of security, retaining, and carrying with it, its prey, as a matter 

 of course. The " inability of the creature to spin its weh^'* is a mere 

 assumption : it was first seen crossing the table, but it might have been 

 inhabiting a web of its own construction for weeks previously; and "the 

 " curious circumstance of its having changed its usual economy, and 

 " having become a hunting, instead of a spinning spider," certainly 

 ceased as soon as it was confined, even if it had ever previously existed, 

 for " SOON AFTER its confinement it attempted to form a web" — " in 

 *' a fortnight it had completed a small web" — in a month " the 

 " web was increased,'' and when " put into a bowl," a better web still 

 was made. It is true, that nothing is said about flies being entangled in 

 the web, and that, on the contrary, it would appear they were at once 

 taken as soon as put in; but the " ate two flies given to it," and " a 

 " fly THROWN TO IT, as its usual provision," induce me to infer that 

 they were either maimed or dead, and it would have been a work of su- 

 pererogation indeed to have enveloped such in a web before eating them. 

 It is stated that although confined in " a glass," (a most inconvenient 

 vessel for the purpose, as my e^eriment, 4, proves) and with *^fiies 

 " GIVEN and thrown" to it, still its web-making propensities pre- 

 vailed, and a web was " soon'' made : that its habits remained those of 

 a web-maker — " it generally sat on its web" — *' continued immoveably 

 " sitting on it in the day-time." Hence I think I have made good the 

 assertion, that it contradicts itself, and that its own inference, and of 

 course that of Messrs. Kirby and Spence also, is an erroneous one. 



But although weavers have not, under any circumstances in which I have 

 placed them, become hunters, and although it is my firm persuasion that it 

 is quite impossible they ever should, yet the inverse takes place, and hunters 

 do actually, to a certain extent, become web-makers. All spiders secrete, 

 and have the power of emitting, to a greater or less extent, those fila- 

 ments which, under certain arrangements, constitute webs ; but all have 

 not the powers and endowments of hunters. The latter therefore becom- 

 ing web-makers, implies merely an increased exercise of an original 

 power ; for web-makers to become hunters, a totally new set of endow- 

 ments must have been acquired. A hunter, when at liberty, has gene- 

 rally a filament hanging from his spinners, and attached to something at 



