126 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
tion; if not, the habits of this insect must have changed 
since those days, for we never saw a web stretching any- 
thing like seven fathoms (42 feet) in breadth; and think 
we should be much nearer the mark if we were to place 
the greatest breadth at twelve to fifteen feet. Again, a bird 
the size of a thrush would easily break through the strongest 
web, and we believe it is only the small and barely full- 
fledged young of-the white-eyed greenlet (Vireo novebora- 
censis) that has been known to become entangled in the 
meshes of this web. 
Being particularly anxious to test the strength of the 
silk, we one day caught an Epeira, and taking hold of the 
end of the silken thread hanging from its body, began to 
wind upon a piece of paper, and succeeded in obtaining a 
few yards of beautiful hght yellow-coloured silk,—and this 
single thread was so strong that we could pull it shehtly 
without breaking it. We were informed that the “Mudian 
ladies made use of it for sewing purposes. The insect is of 
a large size, having, with fore and hind feet, a span of four 
to five inches. It is prettily coloured; body yellow, with 
white dots; head, dark brown. How they find food, and 
where, in the hot weather, we are at a loss to guess, for their 
webs contain only a few scattered remains of cicadees and 
“hard backs,” barely sufficient we should think, to support 
the plump and rotund figure of Epeira clavipes. Towards 
the close of the month of October, when the fierce equi- 
noctial gales, accompanied with heavy rains, put an end to 
the bright hot sunny days of summer, the “silk spider” and 
his web alike disappear together ; and, instinctively taught 
that fruitless it would be to endeavour to repair damages, 
and withstand the fury of the elements, he adopts the wiser 
