SPIDERS. /I 



it is said that the leg of the spider will grow out again, 

 should one or two joints be lost. The spider is com- 

 monly regarded as an insect. But it is without some 

 very important characteristics which belong to insects, 

 as will be seen in the chapter on the fly. 



The spider's jaws are a little like the lobster's pinch- 

 ers. They are furnished with rough teeth for crunch- 

 ing flies and other food, and are armed at the end, 

 each with a sharp claw which opens and 

 shuts upon the jaw, like the blade of a 

 jack-knife. These jaws are excellent 

 tools for the butcher's work of the spi- 

 der, and are deadly weapons in the fight. 

 Through the claw runs a tube carrying 

 poisonous liquid which flows into the 



. n . _,. Spider's Jaws. 



wound, when a bite is inflicted. The 



poison, however, affects the human being scarcely more 



than the poison of the mosquito. 



Eight eyes on the back of the head furnish the ani- 

 mal with abundant power of sight. As to ears, search 

 for them and you will not find them. The creature 

 hears there is no doubt about that. She loves a tink- 

 ling sound, enjoys the strains of music, sometimes let- 

 ting herself down from the ceiling to hear it. Out of 

 her snug den she will run at the buzzing of a fly, or 

 wasp or tuning fork. Perhaps the hairs on their legs 

 have the faculty of hearing; for when listening to 

 sounds, these hairs are raised, just as some animals 

 erect their ears. 



The spider breathes by tubes running through differ- 

 ent parts of its body, and by small air sacs from 

 two to four which may be called lungs. The method 



