SPIDERS. 283 



wrapped round the victim, which was then rolled round 

 and round and further enveloped in a broad sheet of silk. 

 Whereupon the spider dined. 



Some spiders, especially the wolf spiders, carry about a 

 bag of eggs which are enclosed in a silk cocoon. Mr. 

 Peckham stole one of these cocoons and substituted a pith 

 ball. This was refused by the spider, but on comparing 

 it with the cocoon it was found to be three times as large. 

 When its size was reduced and it was again offered to the 

 spider she took it between her jaws, tucked it under her 

 body and apparently derived as much satisfaction from 

 nursing it as from her own cocoon. Her sense of touch 

 was therefore not sufficiently delicate to enable her to 

 distinguish a pith ball from her own cocoon. On another 

 occasion the observers extracted the eggs from a cocoon 

 and substituted a shot. Even this, notwithstanding its 

 relatively enormous weight, was accepted ; and when it 

 fell she spent half an hour in again attaching it to her 

 abdomen. She did not seem therefore to have much 

 power of perceiving whether an object was heavy. 



The eyes of spiders are minute bright beads, generally 

 eight in number but sometimes six, arranged in definite 

 patterns which are different in different genera. Most 

 people believe that spiders are very shortsighted. The 

 observations of the Peck hams seem to show that about 

 ten or twelve inches may be regarded as a good long dis- 

 tance for a spider to see that most attractive of all objects, 

 his mate. Other very interesting observations seem to 

 show that spiders have colour preferences By an arrange- 

 ment of compartments of coloured glass it was found that 

 the spiders much preferred the red compartment to either 

 yellow, blue, or green. In 213 experiments the red box 

 was selected 181 times. 



