796 ARACHNIDES— SPIDER. 



scaffolding thus completed, the spider makes a numher of threads parallel to 

 the first, in the same manner, and then crosses them with others; the 

 clammy substance of which they are formed serving to bind them, when 

 newly made, to each other. 



The insect, after this operation, doubles and trebles the thread that bor- 

 ders its web, by opening all its teats at once, and secures the edges, so as to 

 prevent the wind from blowing the work away. The edges being thus for- 

 tified, the retreat is next to be attended to ; and this is formed like a funnel 

 at the bottom of the web, where the little creature lies concealed. To this 

 are two passages or outlets, one above and the other below, very artfajy 

 contrived, to give it an opportunity of making excursions at proper seasons, 

 of prying into every corner, and cleaning those parts which are observed to 

 be clogged or encumbered. Still attentive to its web, the spider, from time 

 to time, cleans away the dust that gathers round it, which might otherwise 

 clog and incommode it ; for this purpose, it gives the whole a shake with 

 its paws; still, however, proportioning the blow so as not to endanger the 

 fabric. It often happens also, that from the main web there are several 

 threads extended at some distance on every side ; these are, in some mea- 

 sure, the outworks of the fortification, which, whenever touched from with- 

 out, the spider prepares for attack or self-defence. If the insect impinging 

 be a fly, it springs forward with great agility ; if, on the contrary, it be the 

 assault of an enemy stronger than itself, it keeps within its fortress, and 

 never ventures out till the danger be over. Another advantage which the 

 spider reaps from the contrivance of a cell, or retreat behind the web, is, 

 that it serves for a place where the creature can feast upon its game with 

 all safety, and conceal the fragments of those carcasses which it has picked, 

 without exposing to public view the least trace of barbarity, that might 

 create a suspicion in any insects that their enemy was near. 



The female generally lays from nine hundred to a thousand eggs in a 

 season. These eggs are large or small in proportion to the size of the 

 animal that produces them. In some they are as large as a grain of mustard 

 seed ; in others, they are scarcely visible. The female never begins to 

 lay till she is two years old. 



When the number of eggs which the spider has brought forth have 

 remained for an hour or two to dry after exclusion, the little animal then 

 prepares to make them a bag, where they are to be hatched, until they leave 

 the shell. For this purpose, she spins a web four or five times stronger 

 than that made for catching flies; and, besides, lines it withinside with down, 

 which she plucks from her own breast. This bag, when completed, is as 

 thick as paper, is smooth withinside, but rougher without. Within this 

 they deposit their eggs ; and it is almost incredible to relate the concern and 

 industry which they bestow in the preservation of it. They stick it by 

 means of their glutinous fluid to the end of their body ; so that the animal, 

 when thus loaded, appears as if she had one body placed behind another. 



