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A HISTORY OF 



or something that very nearly resembles one, j 

 and in tins the airiiiml is generally seen to re- 

 side. It often happens, however, when the ! 

 young spider begins spinning, that its web be- 

 comes too buoyant, and not only the thread 

 floats in the a'ir, but even the little spinster. 

 In this manner \ve have often seen the threads 

 of spiders floating in the air; and what is still j 

 more surprising, the young spiders themselves j 

 attached to their own web. The reason is I 

 obvious ; for as even gold itself may be so 

 finely drawn out as to float in the air, so the 

 finer thread of a spider is so buoyant as not | 

 only to sw'rn in the air, but also to lift the 

 spider itself; which, like the tail of a kite, rises 

 with its own manufacture. 



The spider's web being thus completed, and 

 fixed in a proper place, its next care is to seize 

 and secure whatever insect happens to be 

 caught in the toil. For this purpose, it remains 

 for weeks and even months upon the watch, 

 without ever catching a single fly ; for the spi- 

 der, like most other insects, is surprisingly 

 patient of hunger. It sometimes happens that 

 too strong a fly strikes itself against the web, 

 and thus, instead of being caught, tears the net 

 to pieces. In general, however, the butterfly 

 or the hornet, when they touch the web, fly 

 off again, and the spider seems no way dis- 

 posed to interrupt their retreat. The large 

 blue-bottle-fly, the ichneumon-fly, and the 

 common meat-fly, seem to be its favourite 

 game. When one of these strike into the toils, 

 the spider is instantly seen alert and watchful 

 at the mouth of its hole, careful to observe 

 whether the fly be completely immeshed : if 

 that be the case, the spider walks leisurely for- 

 ward, seizes its prey, and instantly kills it by 

 instilling a venomous juice into the wound it 

 makes. If, however, the fly be not entirely 

 immeshed, the spider patiently waits, without 

 appearing uniil its prey has fatigued itself by 

 its struggles to obtain its liberty ; for if the 

 ravager should appear in all his terrors while 

 the prey is but half involved, a desperate effort 

 might give k force enough to get free. If the 

 spider has fristed for a long time, it then drags 

 the fly immediately into its hole and devours 

 it ; but if there has been plenty of game, and 

 the animal be no way pressed by hunger, it 

 then gives the fly two or three turns in its web, 

 so as completely to immesh it, and there leaves 

 it impotently to struggle until the little tyrant 



COIIK-S to its appetite. W'hy the spider should 

 at one time kill its prey, and at another suffer 

 it to struggle in the toils for several hours to- 

 gether, 1 am not able to say ; perhaps it only 

 likes its prey newly killed, and therefore de- 

 lays to put the captive to death until it is to be 

 ea'.en. 



It has been the opinion of some philosophers, 

 that the spider was in itself both male and fe- 

 male ; but Lister has been able to distinguish 

 the sexes, and to perceive that the males were 

 much less in size than the females. But this 

 is not the chief peculiarity ; for, different from 

 all other animals, except the fish called the 

 Ray, it has its instruments of generation placed 

 in the fore-arms, which have been already de- 

 scribed. When these animals copulate, they 

 for some time tease each other with their legs 

 and arms, then appear the instruments of 

 generation in the male, as if bursting out from 

 the points of its fore feet, and are inserted 

 into the receptacle beneath the body of the fe- 

 male. 



The female generally lays from nine hun- 

 dred to a thousand eggs in a season ; they 

 are of a bluish colour, speckled with black, 

 and separated from each other by a glutinous 

 substance, not unlike frog spawn water. These 

 eggs are large or small in proportion to the 

 size of the animal that produces them. In 

 some they are as large as a grain of mustard- 

 seed ; in others, they are scarcely visible. 

 The female never begins to lay till she be two 

 years old at the least, and her first brood is 

 never so numerous as when she has come to 

 her greatest maturity. 



When the number of eggs which the spider 

 has brought forth, have remained for an hour 

 or two to dry after exclusion, the little animal 

 then prepares to make them a bag, where they 

 are to be hatched until they leave the shell. 

 For this purpose, she spins a w eb four or 

 five times stronger than that made for catch- 

 ing flies ; and besides, lines it within side by a 

 down, which she plucks from her own breast. 

 This bag, when completed, is as thick as 

 paper, is smooth within side, but rougher with- 

 out. Within this they deposite ti eir eggs ; 

 and it is almost incredible to relate the con- 

 cern and industry which they bestow in the 

 preservation of it. They stick it by means of 

 their glutinous fluid to the end of their body; 

 so that the animal, when thus loaded, appears 



