258 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



until at last it was completely enclosed within a silken bag. I concluded 

 that all was over with the luckless insect, an opinion which Cophinaria evi- 

 dently shared, for she laid on her final lines and clambered away to the 

 centre of her shield, apparently with the intention of drawing her vic- 

 tim towards her to take a hearty meal. 



Scarcely had she settled herself, however, ere the bee renewed its strug- 

 gles. In a moment it succeeded in cutting a little opening at one end 

 of the sac, out of which first issued jaws, then antennse, then its head, 

 and then its body. It was free. Instead of flying away, as one would 

 have thought a reasonable insect ought to do, the bee turned with angry 

 gestures upon the little ball of white silk into which had collapsed the 

 enswathments out of which it had just escaped. Upon this she fast- 

 ened her claws, thrust her sting ferociously into it several times, and then, 

 as though she had satisfied her sense of justice and vengeance, spread her 

 wings and began to ascend. 



There was an angry hum in her wings, and an ugly look in the still 



outthrust sting, which led me to step back a pace or two lest I might come 



in for a share of her wrath. She followed me for a little dis- 



A Bee s tance, and then, changing her mind, mounted into the air, and 

 Escape • , , , • r ^ i 



r, m a moment or two was hovering over a fragrant honey- 



Bonds, suckle blossom, apparently solacing herself for her recent insult 

 by the sweets of nectar. What an escapade that was! And, 

 if the bee only knew it, what a story of "hairbreadth 'scapes" she might 

 have told to her comrades of the hive when she returned home. 



But how fared the sj^ider? This question interested me. I stepped 

 up to the web again, and after a few moments' waiting saw her go down 

 her web lines to the roll of silken swathing. There seemed to be a 

 slight movement of surprise at the character of the object; but if she 

 was greatly disappointed she made little demonstration of the same. She 

 seized the silken ball within her mandibles, turned upon her path, and 

 carried it back to her shield, on the upper part of which she fastened 

 it, somewhat after the manner of a trussed insect set aside for food. I 

 could not satisfy myself whether she had noticed the escape of her prey 

 before this return. But evidently she perceived it now. A little while 

 afterward I found that the swathing cloth had disappeared, and I have 

 no doubt that the spider took it within her jaws and comforted herself 

 by feeding upon it; perhaps a poor substitute for the juicy morsel which 

 she had anticipated, but nevertheless, even with a spider, I sup})Ose, "a 

 half loaf is better than no bread." 



I observe that the location of the web makes a great difference in 

 the amount of food obtained by the spider. Those webs whicli have a 

 favorable position for the flight of insects, in the neighborhood of the 

 honeysuckle blossoms of my manse yard, for example, or in positions 

 on the ampelopis vines easily approached by insects, have an al)undant 



