248 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. XIV. 



have the faculty of doing so sideways. One of 

 these jumped two feet on an humble bee. They ap- 

 proach the object of their intended attack with the 

 noiseless and imperceptible motion of the shadow 

 of a sun-dial. If the fly move, the spider moves 

 also ; backwards, forwards, or sideways, and that 

 with so much precision as to time and distance, that 

 the two insects appeared as if bound together by 

 some invisible chain, or actuated by the same spirit. 

 If the fly take wing and pitch behind the spider, the 

 head of the latter is turned round to meet it so 

 quickly, that the human eye is deceived, and the 

 spider appears to be motionless. When all these 

 manoeuvres bring the fly within its spring, the leap 

 is made with fearful rapidity, and the prey struck 

 down like lightning. 



The redeeming trait in the history of these cruel 

 creatures is, their affection for their young. All 

 spiders envelope their eggs in a silken cocoon ; some 

 hide them in clefts of walls, or in a cylinder formed 

 of leaves ; some carry them attached to their abdo- 

 men, or bear them about as a cat lifts its kitten ; 

 none ever desert their precious charge. A spider, 

 to be met with under clods of earth, may frequently 

 be seen to carry a silken globe full of eggs fixed to 

 its body. The tenacity of affection exhibited 

 towards this, its sole treasure, is truly touching; 

 nothing, not even its life, is valued in comparison 

 with this little globe. If an attempt be made to de- 

 prive it of this valued deposite, it strenuously re- 

 sists : take it away entirely, and the insect remains 

 motionless and rooted to the spot stupified and me- 

 lancholy: restore it, and you restore the animal to 

 life : it eagerly seizes it, and runs off to place it in 

 a securer spot. 



Bonnet threw one of these spiders, to whose ab- 

 domen the bag of eggs was attached, into the den 

 of the ant-lion. The animal, as if aware of its 

 danger, instantly took to flight, but not quickly 



