SENSE OF TOUCH — AGELENA BRUNNEA. 321 



therefore very excellent barometers, and if the spiders all take to 

 mending their nets or spinning new webs, fine weather is always 

 at hand. 



One very remarkable point in the construction of these webs, 

 so exactly true in all their proportions, is that they are executed 

 entirely by the sense of touch. The eyes are situated on the front 

 of the body and on the upper surface, whereas the spinnerets are 

 placed at the very extremity of the body and on the under sur- 

 face, the threads being always guided by one of the hind legs, as 

 may be seen by watching a garden spider in the act of building 

 or repairing her web. In order that the fact should be placed be- 

 yond a doubt, spiders have been confined in total darkness, and 

 yet have spun webs which were as true and as perfect as those 

 which are made in daylight. 



A peculiarly beautiful pensile cocoon is constructed by a 

 common British spider, scientifically termed Agelena brunnea, but 

 which has no popular name. It is really remarkable that, con- 

 sidering the great number of species which inhabit England, so 

 very few should have been sufficiently distinguished to receive 

 popular names. Owing, in all probability, to the foolish dislike 

 toward spiders entertained by most persons, a dislike which has 

 been instilled into their minds at a very early age, these wonder- 

 ful and interesting creatures are seldom watched, and there are 

 very few persons who really know one spider from another, or 

 who have any idea of their exceeding usefulness when in the 

 places which they were intended to inhabit. Spiders are certain- 

 ly out of their place in a room, and the housemaid is perfectly 

 justified in exterminating them, but in the garden or the field 

 they should never be injured, but rather encouraged as much as 

 possible. 



The species whose beautiful nest will now be described is gen- 

 erally to be found upon commons, especially where gorse is abun- 

 dant, as it generally hangs its nest to the prickly leaves of that 

 shrub. The cocoon is shaped rather like a wine-glass, and is al- 

 ways hung with the mouth downward, being fastened by the stalk 

 to a leaf or twig of the gorse. It is very small, only measuring a 

 quarter of an inch in diameter, and, when it is first made, is of the 

 purest white, so as to be plainly visible among the leaves. 



This purity, however, it "retains but a very short time ; for aft- 

 er the spider has deposited her eggs, which are quite spherical, 



X 



