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orin the web. This is far better than trying to prepare a spider for mounting, as 
it requires great skill and patience in dissecting. Should a spider lose a fang or 
feeler, or any other part, it is reproduced and grows larger every fresh moult till 
it reaches its proper length. It has not been ascertained how long spiders live. 
Many writers say four, five, and more years. I have known one to live three 
years, and then it came to an untimely end. The Cardinal spiders are the largest 
we have in England. One was weighed in Gloucester some time ago, and the 
weight of it is said to have been close upon half an ounce. The chicken spider of 
South America, however, is described as being as large as the fist. It measures an 
inch across the head part, and spins a cocoon three inches long and one broad. It 
is not certain whether it belongs to the hunting or working spider. The muscular 
force of this spider is so great that it is very difficult to make it let go the object 
which it has seized, even when the surface does not allow of a purchase either to 
the hooks with which its feet are armed, or to the fangs which it employs to kill 
the birds and the tree lizards. The pugnacity and hatred which it shows in fight- 
ing stop only with its life. 
A spider has lately been discovered in Assam, and has been described before 
the Entomological Society. ‘‘ It is as large as a small mouse, and is capable of 
making a noise, which is produced by rubbing together some of the organs attached 
to the mouth, the sound is grating, its biteis very venomous. It is named Mygale 
Stridulans.” 
With regard to the senses of spiders not much is known. They have those 
of sight, touch, and taste. These two latter organs are situated in the feelers, and 
anecdotes are related which seem to show that they have hearing also. It has 
been affirmed that spiders have come down from the ceiling during concerts and 
returned directly the music ceased; and a specific instance may be given of a 
gentleman who used to play the piano every evening at a certain hour, had always 
an auditor in the shape of a spider, who stationed itself on the instrument as long 
as he played, and ran away directly he finished. In this case, however, the musical 
vibrations may have been felt as readily as they were heard. It is different, how- 
ever, with this anecdote. M. Pellison, when a prisoner in the Bastille, tamed a 
spider in his cell, and taught it to come for food to the sound of his flute. 
Spiders possess great intelligence, as has already been shown. It will be 
further proved by the following anecdote :—Wood, in ‘‘ Homes without Hands,” 
gives an account of an ingenious method adopted by a garden spider on a tempes- 
tuous day. He says: ‘‘ These spiders have a most singular plan of strengthening 
their web when the wind is more than ordinarily violent. If they find that the 
wind stretches their nets to a dangerons extent they hang pieces of wood, or stone, 
or other substances to the web, so as to obtain the needful steadiness. I have seen 
a piece of wood which had been thus used by a garden spider, and which was some 
two inches in length, and thicker than an ordinary drawing pencil. The spider 
hauled it to a height of nearly five feet, and, when by some accident the suspend- 
ing thread was broken, the little creature immediately lowered itself to the ground, 
attached a fresh thread, ascended again to the web, and hauled the piece of wood 
ee 
