My Neighbour 237 



Spider [Tegenaria domestica, Lin.). In the 

 corners of our rooms, she stretches wide webs 

 fixed by angular extensions. The best-pro- 

 tected nook at one side contains the owner's 

 secret apartment. It is a silk tube, a gallery 

 with a conical opening, whence the Spider, 

 sheltered from the eye, watches events. The 

 rest of the fabric, which exceeds our finest 

 muslins in delicacy, is not, properly speaking, a 

 hunting-implement : it is a platform whereon 

 the Spider, attending to the affairs of her estate, 

 goes her rounds, especially at night. The real 

 trap consists of a confusion of lines stretched 

 above the web. 



The snare, constructed according to other 

 rules than in the case of the Epeirse, also works 

 differently. Here are no viscous threads, but 

 plain toils, rendered invisible by their very 

 number. If a Gnat rush into the perfidious 

 entanglement, he is caught at once ; and the 

 more he struggles the more firmly is he bound. 

 The snareling falls on the sheet-web. Tegenaria 

 hastens up and bites him in the neck. 



Having said this, let us experiment a little. 

 In the web of the House Spider, I make a round 



