MEMORY OF SPIDERS. 4. r > 



walls of the burrow and tower, and had evidently been beaten down and 

 pushed in after the manner of Lycosids and Agalenads when beating in the 

 spinningwork of their cocoons and the silk lining of their burrows and 

 tubes. 



Mrs. Treat having learned how this spider, which had been taken from 

 her grounds, had used the cotton, was led to make several experiments. 

 She placed cotton by the side of seventeen burrows, both of the Turret 

 and Tiger spiders, situated upon her lawn, and found eight of the number 

 used the cotton as a lining, but none as artistically as the one above de- 

 scribed. She then went to the edge of a wood, some distance away, and 

 placed cotton by the side of eleven burrows there located. None of the 

 occupants availed themselves of the artificial lining. This seems a curious 

 fact, but the theory which the author uses to account for it, namely, that 

 the individuals upon the lawn must have been descendants of species col- 

 onized from New England in the neighborhood of a cotton manufactory, 

 can hardly be accepted. My recollection is that 

 all these creatures were natives of New Jersey. 

 I am sure at least that the one which wove 

 the cotton lining for me was a native New Jer- 

 seyman. 



One specimen of those situated upon the 

 lawn not only used the cotton fibre for the lin- 

 ing, but also for a cover or door of its dwell- 

 ing. This door she made smooth on 

 the side, and fastened it firmly down 



OOttOn. FlG . 39. Cotton utilized for a door. 



on the outer edge of her wall. (Fig. 



39.) She did not make the same use of the cotton that she would of 

 soft moss, which she sometimes uses in building. The fibre of the cot- 

 ton was drawn out and interwoven among the sticks around the upper 

 portion of the tower, and made to take the place of ordinary web work. 1 

 I have this nest in my collection and give a drawing thereof, Fig. 39. 

 The use of the cotton is curious and interesting, and remotely suggestive 

 of a door, perhaps. But such use is not clearly shown. These examples 

 suggest no little elasticity of intellect on the part of these spiders, for 

 they were at once able to perceive the usefulness of the new material 

 brought within the range of their experience, and easily adapted it to their 

 special needs in lining the interior of their towers. Were they conscious 

 that such soft, pliable material permitted economy of silk secretion, and 

 could that have been a motive for its use ? These facts start a most inter- 

 esting train of reflection and conjecture, and suggest a fruitful field of 

 inquiry and experiment to one who may have both disposition and oppor- 

 tunity to engage therein. 



1 My Garden Pets, page 82. 



