THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



A Beautiful Spider with an Interesting 

 Cocoon. 



Mrs. Isaac Ferris of Hilltop Farm, 

 Riverside, Connecticut, sends to this of- 

 fice a beautiful specimen of the garden 

 spider. It was in a match box. I had 

 frequently seen specimens of this spider 



THE GARDEN SPIDER AND ITS COCOON IN A 

 MATCH BOX IN OUR LABORATORY. 



and also had noticed their cocoons in the 

 grass and attached to various plants, but 

 never before have I seen a spider form a 

 cocoon in captivity. This one suspended 

 a beautiful piece of work of the kind in 

 the center of the box. By carefully cut- 

 ting ofif one end of the box, I was able 

 to expose the spider and the cocoon so as 

 to take the accompanying photograph. 

 This whole family of garden spiders is 

 intensely interesting, and now, in the 

 month of October, is the best time to 

 study them. 



Sunrise Clouds. 



Bright golden fleeces in a pale gold sky, 

 Await their Jason's quest in pastures high. 



— Emma Peirce. 



The Horse Got There First. 

 The late Marvin Day of Westchester, 

 Connecticut, and his family w^ere faith- 

 ful attendants at church. One Sunday 

 he went to the pasture to catch his old 

 horse, but failed to find her in the lot. 

 He and his family went to church, and 

 found the horse already arrived and 

 standing in their shed. The horse had 

 recognized the day of the week and 

 knew that it was time to go to church. 



Observations of Spiders. 



Stamford, Connecticut. 

 To the Editor : 



I have been greatly interested in an 

 occurrence in my garden, under the rose 

 arbor. A spider, about three-eighths of 

 an inch long, has taken up her residence 

 there and is acting much as though she 

 were a robber or a receiver of stolen, 

 goods, though I hate to think her guilty 

 of either crime. She is evidently a 

 species of garden spider though she has 

 built no nest since I first discovered her. 

 My garden has dozens of other spiders 

 in it but I have not yet found one exact- 

 ly like her. When I first saw her she 

 was resting close to a tiny egg bag that 

 seemed fat and full and was attached to 

 one of the crossbeams of the arbor in a 

 rather damp and shady place. 



Soon after that I was delighted one 

 morning early to see that the bag had 

 burst and on it were dozens of the 

 whitest little spiders. These stayed 

 there for eight days, gradually getting 

 darker, and one morning last week I 

 visited them at about 5.30 and found only 

 a few left and these disappeared before 

 another day had passed. Before the 

 spiders had all gone, however, I noticed 

 another and slightly darker egg bag near 

 the first one, and as I understand that 

 after the female spider has had one fam- 

 ily she has fulfilled her mission in life, I 

 was desirous to learn where this second 

 cocoon could have come from. Still 

 more surprising was the fact that on 

 two mornings following my discovery of 

 the second I noticed two others that had 

 not been there on the previous night. 

 Madam Spider did not seem to pay any 

 particular attention to the extra bags 

 until last Monday, when I noticed, from 

 the position in which it had been placed, 

 that she was showing some interest in 

 cocoon No. 2. Wednesday morning I 

 discovered that this had opened and out 

 of a tiny hole were marching very, very 

 slowly a regular army of little spiders, 

 not white as the others had been, but 

 smoky gray ! To-day, Saturday, the little 

 grav beauties are still there but Madam 

 is apparently interested in one of the 

 other bags ! 



I have seen no other spiders while she 

 has l)een there. I have thought it pos- 

 sible that they may indeed have arrived 



