ABOUT SPIDERS AND THEIR WEBS. 



CHAPTER I. 



LAND SPIDERS. 



MOST persons seem to think, or rather, they take for 

 granted without thinking, that a spider is a spider, 

 and that the spider which spins its geometrical web in 

 the branches, or runs over the ground, is identical with 

 the author of the " cobwebs " which have troubled house- 

 keepers for unknown generations. 



In reality, even in this country, we have several 

 distinct classes of spiders. There are the Wolf spiders, 

 the Leopard or Hunting spiders, the Crab spiders, the 

 Tube spiders, and so on. Then there are the Gossamer 

 spiders, the Garden spiders, besides the Water spiders, of 

 which we shall give an account. 



We will begin with the well-known Garden spider, 



