114 NATURE STUDY 



Stick your clothing full of "pitchforks" when voh knew 

 you did not touch it ; they would be horrid if they were 

 not so interesting ; the agrimony held up its stalk of urn- 

 shapeti burrs, and in among them all the grasses and 

 sedges held sway. 



Well, this was the place, and it was a safe retreat for the 

 weary and pursued or the most careless and joyous of 

 lives. At any time in the summer, while passing along 

 the highway, I could observe a gayly-colored spider that 

 had set up housekeeping a few feet from the road. She 

 had looked over the place with her eight bright eyes, and 

 had decided to make her web in an elder bush, which we 

 could see with our two eyes was the nicest choice in the 

 world. 



The web was of the finest silk, of roundest pattern, and al- 

 ways kept in perfect order b}^ the small owner, who appeared 

 to do nothing but stay at home, hanging head downward 

 near the center. I admired the jetty black in which she 

 was clothed, relieved by the short jacket of silver-white 

 hairs and the bright yellow spots and spangles on the body, 

 and came to have an affection for my little orb-weaver, 

 mj^ Epeira riparia. 



But one day, when nobody was looking, this mother spi- 

 der did something more that was interesting. She half 

 concealed, in a golden-rod stalk which grew next door, a 

 large pear-shaped egg-cocoon, perhaps one and one-half 

 inches in length, with a partial opening at the small end. 

 The sac was firmly attached by strong threads, and was 

 colored like a dry oak apple, or as the stalk would be 

 through the bare cold winter. 



The protection might have been mere accident ; it would 

 seem like reason. Mr. Moggridge gives an incident re- 

 lating to a trap-door spider which proves that the spider 

 possessed instinct, acquired by custom, but not reason, in 

 protection of its nest. The spider had been accustomed 



