THE SPIDER. 



449 



whose manners are of all others the most sub- 

 tle, and whose instincts are most various. 

 Formed for a life of rapacity, and incapable 

 of living upon any other than insect food, all 

 its habits are calculated to deceive and sur- 



well observing ; but when any of the old cues did (as 

 sometimes) miss a leap, they would run out of the field 

 and hide themselves in their crannies, as ashamed, and 

 haply not to be seen abroad for four or five hours after ; 

 for so long have I watched the nature of this strange in- 

 sect, the contemplation of whose so wonderful sagacity 

 and address has amazed me ; nor do I find in any chase 

 whatsoever more cunning and stratagem observed. I 

 have found some of these spiders in my garden, when 

 the weather, towards spring, is very hot, but they are 

 nothing so eager in hunting as in Italy." 



We have only to add to this lively narrative, that the 

 hunting spider, when he leaps, takes good care to provide 

 against accidental falls by always swinging himself 

 from a good strong cable of silk, as Swammerdam cor- 

 rectly states, and which any body may verify, as one of 

 the small hunters, known by having its back striped with 

 black and white like a zebra, is very common in Britain. 



As a contrast to the little elastic satin nest of the 

 hunter, we may mention the largest with which we are 

 acquainted, that of the labyrinthic spider. Our readers 

 must often have seen this nest spread out like a broad 

 sheet in hedges, furze, and other low bushes, and some- 

 times on the ground. The middle of this sheet, which 

 is of a close texture, is swung like a sailor's hammock, 

 by silken ropes extended all around to the higher 

 branches ; but the whole curves upwards and backwards, 

 sloping down to a long funnel-shaped gallery which is 

 nearly horizontal at the entrance, but soon winds obliquely 

 till it becomes quite perpendicular. This curved gallery 

 is about a quarter of an inch in diameter, is much more 

 closely woven than the sheet part of the web, and some- 

 times decends into a hole in the ground, though oftener 

 into a group of crowded twigs, or a tuft of grass. Here 

 the spider dwells secure, frequently resting with her legs 

 extended from the entrance of the gallery, ready to spring 

 out upon whatever insect may fall into her sheet net. 

 She herself can only be caught by getting behind her and 

 forcing her out into the web ; but though we have often 

 endeavoured to make her construct a nest under our eye, 

 we have been as unsuccessful as in similar experiments 

 with the common house spider. 



The house spider's proceedings were long ago described 

 by Homberg, and the account has been copied, as usual, 

 by almost every subsequent writer. Goldsmith has, 

 indeed, given some strange mis-statements from his own 

 observations, and Bingley has added the original remark, 

 that, after fixing its first thread, creeping along the wall 

 and joining it as it proceeds, it " darts itself to the op- 

 posite side, where the other end is to be fastened ! " Hom- 

 berg's spider took the more circuitous route of travelling to 

 the opposite wall, carrying in one of the claws the end of 

 the thread previously fixed, least it should stick in the 

 wrong place. This we believe to be the correct state- 

 ment, for as the web is always horizontal, it would sel- 

 dom answer to commit a floating thread to the wind, as 

 is done by other species. Homberg's spider, after stretch- 

 ing as many lines by way of warp, as it deemed sufficient 

 between the two walls of the corner which it had chosen, 

 proceeded to cross this in the way our weavers do in 

 adding the woof, with this difference, that the spider's 

 threads were only laid on and not interlaced. The 

 domestic spiders, however, in these modern days, must 

 have forgot this mode of weaving, for none of their webs 

 will be found to be thus regularly constructed. 



The geometric, or net-working spiders, are as well 

 known in most districts as any of the preceding ; almost 



VOL. II. 



prise : it spreads toils to entangle its prey; it 

 is endued with patience to expect its coming; 

 and is possessed of arms and strength to des- 

 troy it when fallen into the snare. 



In this country, where all the insect tribes 



every bush and tree in the gardens and hedge rows hav 

 ing one or more of their nets stretched out, in a vertical 

 position between adjacent branches. '/-"-The common 

 garden spider and the long-bodied spider are the best 

 known of this order. 



The chief care of a spider of this sort is, to form a 

 cable of sufficient strength to bear the net she means to 

 hang upon it; arid, after throwing out a floating line as 

 above described, when it catches properly she doubles 

 and redoubles it with additional threads. On trying its 

 strength she is not contented with the test of pulling it 

 with her legs, but drops herself down several feet from 

 various points of it, as we have often seen, swinging and 

 bobbing with the whole weight of her body. She pro- 

 ceeds in a similar manner with the rest of the frame- 

 work of her wheel-shaped net: and it may be remarked 

 that some of the ends of these are not simple, but in form 

 of a Y, giving her the additional security of two attach- 

 ments instead of one. 



In constructing the body of the net, the most remark- 

 able circumstance is her using her limbs as a measure, 

 to regulate the distances of her radii or wheel-spokes, and 

 the circular meshes interweaved into them. These are 

 consequently always proportional to the size of the spider. 

 She often takes up her station in the centre, but not al- 

 ways, though it is so said by inaccurate writers ; for she 

 as frequently lurks in a little chamber constructed under 

 a leaf or other shelter at the corner of her web, ready to dart 

 down upon whatever prey may be entangled in her net. 

 The centre of the net is said also to be composed of more 

 viscid materials than itssuspensory lines, acircumstance 

 alleged to be proved by the former appearing under the 

 microscope studded with globules of gum. We have not 

 been able to verify this distinction, having seen the 

 suspensory lines as often studded in this manner as those 

 in the centre. 



A no less wonderful structure is composed by a sort 

 of spiders, natives of the tropics and the south of Europe, 

 which have been justly called the mason-spiders by M. 

 Latreille. One of these (Mygale nidulans, Walckn.) 

 found in the West Indies, " digs a hole in the earth 

 obliquely downwards, about three inches in length, and 

 one in diameter. This cavity she lines with a tough 

 thick web, which, when taken out, resembles a leathern 

 purse ; but what is most curious, this house has a door 

 with hinges, like the operculum of some sea-shells, and 

 herself and familyj who tenant this nest, open and shut 

 the door whenever they pass and repass. This history 

 was told me," says Darwin, " and the nest, with its door, 

 shown me by the late Dr Butt, of Bath, who was some 

 years a physician in Jamaica." 

 3 L 



