204 



AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



Limi- 



cunee's 



Method. 



accomplish this result? If we were to suppose a human plasterer given 

 the task of covering a sack hung to the ceiling of a roof with a coating of 

 mortar two or three times the bulk of the sack, and to have the same, at 

 the conclusion of the work, in the shape of a globe, how would he proceed? 

 Manifestly by placing successive layers around the sack, suffering one to 

 harden before the other would be laid on, rounding each up with his 

 trowel as he proceeded, building the mortar around the cord by which 

 the sack was suspended, and all the while so guiding his implement that 

 the object would gradually assume the globular shape required. 



Precisely such is the method pursued by our little Limicunaj. A dis- 

 section of the cocoon shows that the spider placed her mud upon the silk- 

 en sac in numerous successive layers ; that she permitted one 

 layer to harden before the other was laid on; and that, as she 

 gradually proceeded, she built her mortar around the suspensory 

 cord or pedicle, and shaped the whole with her mandibles and 

 feet until it assumed the form of the smooth, round object represented in 

 Figs. 147 and 148 on page 130. 



One cannot venture to think that the process by which the human 

 plasterer arrives at his method of work is identical with that pursued by 

 this spider plasterer. In the one case it is the result of educa- 

 tion and experience, and of the application by reasoning of 

 previous training to the problem in hand. In the case of the 

 Striker's spider no such education or experience, and probably no such 

 process of reasoning, can be predicated. What mental processes 

 has she gone through, if indeed she has passed through any ? Can we 

 ascribe to her, under the circumstances, the credit of reasoning upon her 

 work and adapting her methods thereto? To do this would seem to me 

 to place her thinking abilities and natural mechanical capabilities above 

 those of man. That there have been design and forethought somewhere 

 behind all the processes of the spider mother one cannot doubt ; yet with 

 equal certainty we must refuse to attribute them solely to the spider her- 

 self. Forethought and mechanical skill abide in Nature, whose formative 

 forces have wrought out the structure of the spider and guided all its 

 functions. But forethought and skill are the attributes of mind, of per- 

 sonality ; and how shall we denominate this Personal Thinker? How cnu 

 we deny His Presence? 



Perhaps a third illustration may be added. Cyclosa caudata has the 

 curious habit of attaching to the exterior of her cocoons carcasses of in- 

 sects from which she has sucked the juices, instead of casting 

 yc ^ a them from the snare, the usual aranead mode of disposing of 

 such material. Given the habit of suspending the cocoon with- 

 in the disc of the orbicular snare, and also the habit of protecting the 

 same by an armor of extraneous material, it is, perhaps, inevitable that 

 the mother should be compelled to resort to some such, method. It is 



Man's 

 Method 

 and the 



