THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 33 
them, especially as there was no one likely to interfere with 
their webs by the use of dusting-brush or otherwise. 
Sept. 8th.—One of the Epéire having constructed a web 
on a lower pane, I determined to make some experiments 
with it: accordingly, by way of commencement, I placed a 
dead house-fly, just killed for the purpose, in the upper part 
of the web, close to the spider, which, however, took no 
notice of it during the whole afternoon. In the evening I 
tried once more, this time placing a living fly in the centre of 
the web, but with the same result, although the fly in its 
struggles shook every portion of the net. Thinking that my 
presence had something to do with the cause of such apathy, 
I turned down the gas to await the result. Ina few seconds 
1 heard the sound of the fly’s wings, so I turned up the light 
at once, but immediately the spider made off, leaving the fly 
to continue its struggles again. Seeing the effect either of 
the light or of my presence, I again lowered the gas; but, 
after wailing some time without any apparent result, I raised 
the light, and to my surprise saw the spider feeding on the 
dead fly, which had been neglected during the greater part of 
the day ; but it ran back to its hole as before. 
Sept. 13th.—During the last few days the Epéira has 
refused to eat or take any notice whatever of a fly, so I turned 
it out to see whether it would return or not to its abode, 
which I preserved intact. But it never has returned, and the 
web remains unoccupied. Then I turned my attention to a 
small colony on the upper panes of the window, and finding 
a very small straw-coloured spider, in a large irregular web, 
I tested its capabilities by putting a living fly in the middle 
of the meshes, with the following result: almost before my 
hand had left the fly the little spider ran down, and with its 
falces seized its prey’s fore leg by the foot, and, fixing itself 
firmly, held on until the struggles of the fly had ceased so far 
as to enable it to complete the capture by the additional 
security of a few threads. My next experiment, with another 
very small spider of a dirty brown colour, was more interest- 
ing. It had a very small web in the lower corner of a pane 
in the middle of the window, and with some difficulty I 
entangled the legs of a fly in it, but its weight and struggles 
caused it to fall over the ledge, where it hung suspended by 
the fore legs. I left it alone to see what steps the spider 
F 
