COCOON LIFE AND BABYHOOD. 213 



skin, und all parts are perfected. By this time the body is covered with 

 hair and they i)ossess claws and bristles ; they crawl about and begin to 

 S2)in, l)ut roniain in the neighliorhood of the cocoon. They have as yet 

 no need for food, as sufficient yelk is deposited in their budics for i)resent 

 wants. 



After six or eight days the second moulting takes place, and the}' now 

 begin to feel hungry, and, when nothing else offers, attack each other, the 

 strong devouring the weak. Menge also noticed that when kept impris- 

 oned they will even eat the old skin ; but when at liberty neither of these 

 extreme measures take place, as a general thing, inasmuch as plenty of 

 food is found around the place of their birth. At this time each aranead 

 supports itself as Nature ordained, and, its appetite becoming ravenous, it 

 rapidly increases in size and development. For this reason Menge never 

 succeeded in carrying young ones, liatched in a glass, over this period and 

 he doubts whether it can be done at all, even taking foreign varieties (such 

 as American) for the purpose. He tried Le Bon's experiment, feeding them 

 from quills filled with blood of young pigeons, but without success. A few 

 of them may suck the blood, but niost of them pay no attention whatever 

 to this unnaturally served food. Most grown spiders ^^resent the same dif- 

 ficulty, preferring to starve to death rather than accept food which they 

 do not fancy ; even the very insects on which they live when free are re- 

 fused if not caught by themselves. 



Menge often tried to bring to maturity a yet undescribed spider (Me- 



lanophora), which he found rarely, and always full grown; but in tliis he 



failed. Although the glass was filled with flies, nioscjuitoes, po- 



r 1 oia (|m..j^^ g^(,_^ ^j^g spider left them untouched, and finally both in- 



Difflcult sects and spider died. The same result attended efforts with 



Saltigrades. Lineweavers and Tul)eweavers were much easier to 



feed, as they attack everything that falls into their w'eb wdien not too large 



or too much against their taste. The easiest to keep in captivity are the 



Lycosids, which become tame and will take flies offered to them in the 



hand.^ 



IV. 



After the rigors of winter have been successfully endured, the warm 

 days of spring first hasten the process of hatching, and then tempt the 

 spiderlings from their cocoon. I have repeatedly observed, dur- 

 pen ir j^^^ ^ series of years, the issuing of broods and their behavior 

 immediately thereafter. The observations have been under fa- 

 vorable conditions within doors, and also out of doors from cocoons trans- 

 ferred from their original site and affixed to branches of shrubbery, and a 

 few in original site. The young of various species representing Orbweavers, 



'■ Menge, " Preussischu Spinnen." 



