facts and Thoughts about Spiders. 189 
study of the habits of this dusty domestic creature 
leads us incidentally into the realms of fable and 
romance. It is remarkable for the extreme length 
of its legs, and resembles in colour and general ap- 
pearance a crane fly, but is double the size of that 
insect. It has a singular method of protecting 
itself: when attacked or approached even, gathering 
its feet together and fastening them to the centre 
of its web, it swings itself round and round with 
the velocity of a whirligig, so that it appears like a 
mist on the web, offering no point for an enemy to 
strike at. When a fly is captured the spider 
approaches it cautiously and spins a web round it, 
continually narrowing the circle it describes, until 
the victim is inclosed in a cocoon-like covering. 
This is a common method with spiders; but the 
intelligence—for I can call it by no other word—of 
the Pholeus has supplemented this instinctive pro- 
cedure with a very curious and unique habit. The 
Pholcus, in spite of its size, is a weak creature, 
possessing little venom to despatch its prey with, 
so that it makes a long and laborious task of killing 
a fly. A fly when caught in a web is a noisy crea- 
ture, and it thus happens that when the Daddy- 
longlegs—as Anglo-Argentines have dubbed this 
species—succeeds in snaring a captive the shrill 
outrageous cries of the victim are heard for a long 
time—often for ten or twelve minutes. This noise 
greatly excites other spiders in the vicinity, and 
presently they are seen quitting their webs and 
hurrying to the scene of conflict. Sometimes the 
captor is driven off, and then the strongest or most 
daring spider carries away the fly. But where a 
