SENSE OF TOUCH. 5 



succeededin briiii^Ing the spider to the spot, because, 

 as we inferred, her eyes always detected our attempted 

 deception. But when a fly is held near a web and 

 made to buz, the spider in most cases will peep from 

 her lurking-hole, to look whether it has not been 

 cauffht in some of the lines or meshes not under her 

 view, proving that the sense of hearing is as acute 

 and useful in such cases as either vision or touch. 

 It appears, further, that a small spider ascertains by 

 touch the superior strength of a blow-fly or a large 

 syrphus which may chance to be caught in its web, 

 hesitating long before venturing to attack it, and 

 sometimes never venturing at all, — a circumstance 

 Me have often remarked, and we have frequently, be- 

 sides, repeated the experiment of putting large flies 

 in the webs of small spiders with similar results*. 



The stretching out of the legs of the long-bodied 

 spider {TetragJiatha extensa, Latr.), when it places 

 itself in the centre of its geometric web, appears to 

 have given origin to the opinion under review : though 

 it may be remarked that it does not spread its legs 

 around so as to take cognizance of as many lines as 

 possible, but, on the contrary, huddles them into a 

 close bundle, more apparently with the view of mak- 

 ing them appear motionless and lifeless than actively 

 on the alert. This view is still more strongly proved 

 by the circumstance, that when this spider is not on 

 its web watching for prey, but resting on a wall, or 

 in the fold of a leaf, it stretches out its legs in the 

 same manner. 



The long-legged house spider (Pholciis phalan- 

 gioides, Walck.) may be referred to as giving more 

 countenance to the opinion, because it not only spins 

 a very loose irregular web in the corners of walls, but 

 keeps its legs spread about as if on purpose to feel 

 the more readily when any thing is caught. We 



* J. R. 



b3 



