THE HOUSE SPIDER 203 



The writer has never obserA'ed a female g-o through her cocooii- 

 iiiiT process for the first time, but if we examine these first 

 coL'oons we find the.y are apparently as well built as the later 

 ones. The cocooning process is quite complicated, and un- 

 doubtedly it is instinctive. If instincts are built up from re- 

 flex acts, certainly many sush acts have contributed to this 

 adaptive performance. It is interesting to note that in this ease 

 more than simply reaching maturity is necessary to start the 

 chain of reflex performances. Fertilization is also necessary. 



Memory' does not appear to be well developed in the house 

 spider. A cocoon kept from the female a few days was not 

 accepted by her when returned to her cage. It has been shown 

 that the females of some species wall not accept a cocoon after 

 being separated from it for more than 48 hours. 



Reason. — That spiders lack prevision, as well as the ability 

 to pro-fit by experience is indicated by the following experiment. 

 A male and female were captured and placed in a common glass 

 battery- jar which had perpendicular sides. They could not 

 climb the smooth glass sides of this jar so a wooden approach 

 ■was placed leading up on the sides of the jar from near the 

 middle. Although the male passed several times by this ap- 

 proach he never attempted to climb it. Both male and female 

 continued to try to climb the sides of the jar for twenty min- 

 utes, when I placed the foot of the approach against the bottom 

 of the wall. In this position the female walked over the base of 

 the approach several times, but made no attempt to crawl up it. 

 Finally the male came across the base of the approach. He 

 at once climbed to the top of the same, and dropped down spin- 

 ning a thread as he came which he fastened at the bottom of 

 the cage. Now he showed no signs of prospering from his ex- 

 perience, but continued to try the smooth glass again many 

 times in succession. Finally he came across the wooden ap- 

 proach, but, poor spider, he passed right over it to try the smooth 

 perpendicular glass walls and continued in this manner for 

 some time. This reaction certainly suggests a lack of reason, 

 at least in its higher form. 



The blindness of the spider's instinct to snare victims, show- 

 ing no accompanying judgment was shown in the following way. 

 The web of the female was gently shaken by the end of a small 

 wire so as to imitate the jerking on the web by an ensnared fly. 

 At once the female rushed down to the end of the wire, and 



