CH. XIV. J THE SPIDER 237 



" I had now a mind to try how many cobwebs a 

 single spider could furnish, wherefore I destroyed 

 this, and the insect set about another. When I de- 

 stroyed the other also, its whole stock seemed en- 

 tirely exhausted, and it could spin no more. The 

 arts it made use of to support itself, now deprived 

 of its great means of subsistence, were indeed sur- 

 prising ; I have seen it roll up its legs like a ball, 

 and lie motionless for hours together, but cautiously 

 watcliing all the time ; when a fly happened to ap- 

 proach sufRcientiy near, it would dart out all at once, 

 and often seize its prey. 



" Of this life, however, it soon began to grow 

 weary, and resolved to invade the possession of some 

 other spider, since it could not make a web of its 

 own. It formed an attack upon a neighbouring for- 

 tification with great vigour, and at first was as 

 vigorously repulsed. Not daunted, however, with 

 one defeat, in this manner it continued to lay siege 

 to another's web for three days, and at length having 

 killed the defendant, actually took possession. 



"The insect I am now describing lived three 

 years ; every year it changed its skin, and got a new 

 set of legs, i have sometimes plucked off a limb, 

 which grew again in two or three days. At first it 

 dreaded my approach to its web, but at last it became 

 so familiar as to take a fly out of my hand, and on 

 my touching any part of the Aveb, would immediately 

 leave its hole, prepared either for defence or attack." 



But the ingenuity of the house-spider, although 

 very great, is still inferior to that of the garden-spi- 

 der. " As the net," says Kirby, in his admirable 

 account of the proceedings of this spider," is usually 

 fixed in a perpendicular or somewhat oblique direc- 

 tion, in an opening between the leaves of some shrub 

 or plant, it is obvious that round its whole extent 

 will be required lines to which can be attached those 

 ends of the radii that are farthest from the centre. 

 Accordingly, the construction of these exterior lines 



