SPIDERS AND THEIR WAYS. 795 



mother watches the cocoon unceasingly, even forgetting to feed 

 herself. When the young have escaped from their cradle, the 

 starved mother returns to her web, where she sits and devours 

 flies so numerously that the ground beneath becomes littered with 

 their bodies. The domestic spider rarely inhabits the holes in 

 rocks and the hollows of old trees, which are preferred by so 

 many other creatures. Open-air species of the south and center 

 of Europe, where the temperature is never rigorous, learn in the 

 cold climates of the north, as in Scandinavia, to insinuate them- 

 selves into the houses — wise animals, that seem to know they will 

 require a shelter from the cold. 



We inhabitants of houses need not be above sharing our life 

 with spiders. The part they perform is appreciated in the country, 

 where they are not destroyed or disturbed in bedrooms or stables. 

 The flies are a perpetual cause of torment to the people and to 

 animals, and they perish in the webs of spiders, with perceptible 

 decrease in their numbers. Spiders are, indeed, valuable servants 

 given us by Nature. 



On clear and sunny days, especially in the latter part of the 

 summer, when a light breeze is blowing, long threads and flakes 

 of a snowy whiteness may be seen floating in the air ; or, cover- 

 ing the grass of the flowery meadows, they wave in the breeze 

 and cause on the lawns shimmerings of strange effect. The peas- 

 antry of France call them the Virgin's threads. More accurately 

 the naturalist would say they are the threads, abandoned as if to 

 chance, of a kind of spider very common in the fields, which is 

 called the gossamer spider. These spiders are wanderers, and fre- 

 quent low plants and shrubs ; small in size and loving the bright 

 light, they wear lively colors which often confound them with the 

 flowers and mask them from the pursuit of carnivorous animals. 

 Their motions are abrupt and rapid, and their broad bellies give 

 them a singular gait, something like that of crabs that we see 

 running over the sea-beaches. They do not spin webs, but watch 

 for passing insects, and, precipitating themselves upon their game 

 with a sudden spring and extraordinary address, they rarely fail 

 to secure it. The gossamer spider takes shelter under stones or 

 plants or in holes. At the breeding-season they construct a sack 

 to hold their eggs, and from that moment become sedentary and 

 abstinent, watching over their posterity. 



As day butterflies are gayer than night-moths, so do the epeiras 

 show to better advantage than other spiders. They have for the 

 most part either handsome colors or agreeable shades, and they 

 hold the supreme rank as spinners. The European representatives 

 of the group are modest in appearance, but in tropical countries 

 the species to large size add luxury in dress. They are numerous 

 enough on the globe to form a large family, that of the EpeiridcB, 



