THE SPIDERS. 80 



own species, of either sex, to pieces, wherever she finds it, 

 will part with life sooner than with the white bag in which 

 she carries her egg, like an Indian squaw carrying her 

 papoos. Web-spiders generally weave little silken purses 

 for their eggs, and hang them about the web. When the 

 infant hordes break forth, which they do like a plague, all 

 in one day, they occupy their mother's web until they are 

 old enough to spin for themselves. 



Spiders are also worth studying as an illustration 

 showing in how many ways the same thing may be done. 

 They all, without exception, live by murder, but the follow- 

 ing is only a brief list of the chief ways in which they 

 compass that end : 



i. They run down their prey. These are the wolves of 

 the tribe, and make their living by fleetness of foot. The 

 chief of them all is the great house-spider of Bombay, fully 

 four inches in stretch of limb. I love this kind for killing 

 cockroaches. There is no production of nature, to my 

 mind, so entirely indefensible as the cockroach. The spirit 

 of fair-play itself could find no plea for the continued exis- 

 tence of that sneaking, butter-eating, evil-smelling prowler 

 of the pantry. And with its long feelers, it is too cautious 

 to be entangled in any web. But, whether it be the huge 



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