98 NATURE .STUDY. 



iiig spiders and crab spiders, do not weave any web at all. 



With a simple pocket lens the larger spiders may be 

 studied easily. There are eight legs, and a pair of "feel- 

 ers" or palpi, that look like legs. The legs are sex'en- 

 jointed, and in some spiders each foot has three claws ; in 

 others the foot has two claws and a brush of hairs. The 

 legs are attached to the front half of the body beneath, 

 while on top, farther in front, are the eight bead-like eyes. 

 These vary in size and arrangement in different kinds of 

 spiders, and it is an excellent nature study exercise to 

 make drawings, showing the eyes by means of small and 

 large dots in straight lines and cur\^es, just as they are ar- 

 ranged on the head, with the corresponding web sketched 

 on the same page. 



Below the eyes, in front are the strong mandibles, with 

 sharp points that close against the inner side of the mandi- 

 bles, like the blade of a jacknife, and open when the man- 

 dibles are spread apart. It is because the mandibles can 

 open but a little way that most spiders are unable to 

 bite large objects. The spider holds small insects in these 

 mandibles and chews with another pair of jaws, swallowing 

 only the juices, sometimes chewing for hours on a single 

 fly, until the skin and legs and wings are rolled into a lit- 

 tle ball, which some spiders have the curious habit of hang- 

 ing up in their webs, as Indians used to hang up scalps on 

 their wigwams. 



At the rear of the abdomen are the spinning tubes, or 

 spinnerets, which, in many spiders, can be seen with 

 the naked eye. When a spider would spin, it press- 

 es these spinnerets against some hard object and then 

 walks away, drawing out the thread as it moves along 

 and holding it up with its hind feet. 



If one does not like to study spiders, there is still sure to 

 be an interest in the webs, and there are so many kinds, in 

 so many places, that there will alwaj^s be something new 



