Spiders. 397 



the poet, having observed the disappearance of these bits of 

 ravelled web, imagined that the spider swallowed them ; and 

 even says that he observed a garden spider moisten the 

 pellets before swallowing them I* Dr. Lister, as we have 

 already seen, thought the spider retracted the threads within 

 the abdomen. 



* Remains, ii. 62-5. It is a remarkable fact, as recorded from personal 

 observation, by Mr. Bell (British Reptiles), that the toad swallows the cuticle 

 detached from its body during the moult which it undergoes. 



