Objects for the Microscope. 59 



shall not fail to be struck with the intelligence of their 

 habits and the amount of their instinct. For instance, in 

 the structure of their habitations, one species (Clotho*) 

 found in the south of Europe makes a beautiful tent in the 

 shape of a cup, festooned at the edges, with the outer cover- 

 ing of the finest texture, like taffeta, and weaves a second 

 apartment, of still softer material, for her young. In this 

 inner room, kept scrupulously clean, she hangs five or six 

 little bags, wherein her eggs are laid enveloped in fine 

 down. When she goes in and out of her tent she lifts the 

 edge of a festoon and drops it again. The Mygale Spider, 

 whose nest you may see in the British Museum, brought 

 from Jamaica, is made of the hardest clay, having a trap- 

 door fitting most exactly, and hinged with stout layers of 

 silk ; the use of which she knows so well, that if it is half- 

 opened by an intruder, she will pull it strongly inwards to 

 defend herself. 



The cunning and amusing way in which the Hunting 

 Spiders catch their prey creeping under a twig or window- 

 ledge as gently as a deer-stalker, lying motionless for a 

 while, moving as the Fly moves, turning with incredible 

 swiftness round and round, ever keeping the prey in sight, 

 until, quite certain of its being within reach, they spring 

 like a Tiger, as fierce and as unerring in their leap. 



We may watch these ourselves in our garden on a warm 

 spring day, e.g. a little black and white striped Spider, 

 called Salticus, which, before it leaps, cautiously fixes a 

 good strong thread to the wall in case of a fall. 



Again, we may see high instinct and deep affection in 

 those vagrant Spiders of the wood, Lycosse, which hunt 

 with their cocoon of eggs so firmly clasped to the body 

 that they will die rather than part with it. 



A wise little Spider of our neighbourhood its name I 

 do not know lives on the ponds and ditches of Otmoor, 

 and spins a web round a kind of raft of Lemna, with a stem, 

 of grass or a little twig to make it stronger, I suppose 

 and floats about on this, pouncing on any half-drowned or 

 newly-hatched Fly which may come within its reach. 



* Uroctea. 



