HABITS OF SPIDERS. 461 



corners of the rocks in every part of these islands, which 

 forms a convenient abode in these small shells, lining 

 them carefully with a fine silken tapetum. Near the sea- 

 coast, a minute species of Pagurus was found occupying 

 these little truncated univalve shells, crawling about by 

 thousands. Our spider, however, is unable to move about 

 with its borrowed house in the manner of those pirate 

 crabs, but either sits sedentary in its den, or ventures 

 forth at intervals on its predatory hunting excursions. 



Among the rocks of a small islet near Quelpart, the 

 largest of the Korean islands, there is a species of Spider 

 which forms a very ingenious dwelling, which may be 

 compared to that of the Swallow, whose nest affords such 

 an important article in the gastronomy of wealthy Man- 

 darins, (the Hirundo esculenta,} but adhering to the rough 

 surface of the rock in a reversed position, resembling a 

 watch-pocket upside down. It is composed of a substan- 

 tially-woven silky material, and firmly secured by means 

 of a glutinous secretion. The ingenious little builder and 

 proprietor of this strange castle in the air, lets himself 

 down by a rope-ladder, or, to speak less fancifully, by a 

 fine spun web, which he manufactures for the purpose out 

 of the substance of his body as required, he himself serv- 

 ing the purpose of a weight ; " deducit stamina, ipso se 

 pondere usus," as Pliny observes, when treating on these 

 animals in his chapter " De Araneis." In the eaves of 

 the thatched houses of the Koreans, I observed that a 

 large black-coloured species of hymenopterous insect forms 

 long cylindrical holes, lined with comminuted straw made 

 into a kind of mortar by being mixed with a glutinous 

 secretion ; at the bottom of this tube the mother deposits 



