Spiders. 385 



small hunters (Salticus scenicus), known by having its back 

 striped with black and white like a zebra, is very common 

 in Britain. 



Mr. Weston, the editor of 'Bloomfield's Remains,' falls 

 into a very singular mistake about hunting-spiders, imagin- 

 ing them to be web-weaving ones which have exhausted 

 their materials, and which are therefore compelled to 

 hunt. In proof of this he gives an instance which fell 

 under his own observation !* 



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 (Agelena labyrinthica, WALCKE- 

 NABR). Our readers must often have seen this nest spread 

 out like a broad sheet in hedges, furze, and other low bushes, 

 and sometimes 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 sometimes descends into a hole in the 

 ground, though offcener 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 (Aranea 

 domestica). (J. R.) 



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 misstatements from his own observations, 



* Bloomfield's Remains, vol. ii. p. 64, note. 



2 c 



