PROCURING FOOD AND FEEDING. 263 



This mode of drinking as described by Mr. Campbell accurately ex- 

 presses the common method as I have observed it. In the case of large 

 spiders that have long been kept from water, such, for example, as Hentz's 

 tarantula, the spider will sometimes rush to the water, greedily drop the 

 maxillae and mouth organs into it, the body being partly sustained in 

 the meantime by tlie outspread legs. Sometimes the mouth will be lifted 

 up for a little while, and then again sunk into the water. 



Many sedentary spiders, and indeed numbers of other tribes, must ob- 

 tain a considerable supply of water during the process of cleansing them- 

 selves. The little drops of dew and rain which gather upon the hairs of 

 the legs are brushed or squeezed into the mouth when the limbs are drawn 

 through the mandibles in the process of toilet making, as described in 

 Vol. II. of this work. 



Cambridge observes that drought as well as excess of wet, but more 

 especially the former, and unseasonable weather of all kinds have a strong 

 effect in reducing the number of spiders. Some species found in marshy 

 places are so susceptible to injury, from lack of moisture, that they cannot 

 be carried alive in a box for more than an hour or two, unless a small por- 

 tion of damp moss be placed with them. Others, on the contrary, ai)pear to 

 thrive best on the most arid spots, and in the hottest sun. As a rule, how- 

 ever, spiders are thirsty souls, constantly requiring water to drink. ^ 



I have received one authentic report of spiders drinking milk. It was 

 sent me by Mrs. Mary Treat, to whom it was communicated by one of her 

 lady correspondents, Mrs. J. B. Harrison. The species referred 

 M'lk ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ identified, but the statement made is that the spider 



spun a thread from the side of a box down to a milk pan, and 

 then deliberately and carefully descended inside the vessel until it came to 

 the milk, which it then sucked. This was observed in several cases. One 

 cannot help wondering whether the spider's taste was sufficiently keen to 

 distinguish between the milk and its ordinary drink. Probably not. The 

 same lady speaks of a spider whose snare was on a punq) in the yard, and 

 which every night spun a delicate line just across the spout, and from this 

 position procured drinking water. 



Does the spider eat its web ? is a question which has often been asked, 



and variously answered by botli, scientific and non scientific observers. In 



point of fact, the Orbweaver does eat its web. It is its invari- 



^ ^^ ■, able habit to gather together the particles of its broken snare, 



when it clears away the wreckage to make a new web, and ball 



it underneath its jaws with its feet and palps. It then takes it into its 



mouth and apparently sucks from it all the viscid material and all the 



other nutritious matter — dealing with it, so far as I can observe, very much 



in the same way that it does with a fly. 



The manner in which a fractured web is eaten may be frequently seen 



^ Cambridge, " Spiders of Dorset," Introduction, page xxxii. 



