PROCURING FOOD AND FEEDING. 267 



that makes them. For, be it considered, the spider only comes into our 

 homes because mosquitoes and other insects also come ! She comes, not 

 seeking to harm us, but to help us, and therefore, for the sake of her mo- 

 tive, if she be not welcome, let her, at least, be thought of kindly. 



The number of insects of all sorts and sizes destroyed by spiders sim- 

 ply passes calculation. If one will walk out on a dewy morning, with 

 his eyes open for spider webs, he will be surprised to find how many there 

 are, and how various, too, the forms of spinningwork that meet him. All 

 over this new plowed field he will find them fresh spun ; in yonder meadow, 

 also, hanging by myriads upon myriads on the grasses. Along that hedge 

 row they are nested, and have woven their dainty snares, and built their 

 nests on the feathery ferns. In the branches of these shrubs and on the 

 foliage of yonder trees are other hosts. 



If one will push back the foliage, he will see yet others, spiders of 

 the Wandering group, that stalk their prey as do the wild beasts of the 

 forest, crouching on trunk and branches and lurking among the 

 leaves. If one turns to the earth, other myriads are seen, whose 

 anthro- nomes are on the ground, or who build slight webs close to the 

 pist. surface. These have laid the axe at the very root of the tree, 



and are destroying the insects ere they rise from the surface to 

 visit our homes. 



All these unnumbered multitudes of spiders are engaged, during every 

 moment of their existence, in waging relentless war upon the insect world. 

 When one considers how many spiders there are, and that they all thus 

 feed upon their natural food, the insects, he may form some just conception 

 of how needful they are to mankind. I do not hesitate to say that, unless 

 Nature should provide some equivalent in the way of check upon insects, 

 man could not dwell in many inhabited parts of the world were it not for 

 the friendly service of spiders. 



