4?6 THE HOUSE SPIDER. 



oval, of a brown colour, and marked with five black 

 and almost contiguous spots. 



The House-spiders feed principally on fiies ; and 

 the web by which they are enabled to entangle these 

 insects is a surprising part of the animal economy. — 

 For the purpose of forming this web, they are sup- 

 plied with a quantity of glutinous matter contained 

 m a receptacle near the extremity of their bodies ; 

 and they have five teats for spinning it into thread, 

 the orifices of which the insects have the power of 

 contracting and dilating at pleasure. When they 

 enter on the construction of this curious fabric, they 

 fix on a spot of apparent plunder and security. — 

 The animal then distils one little drop of glutinous 

 liquor, which is very tenacious ; and creeping along 

 the wall, and joining its thread as it proceeds, darts 

 kself to the opposite side, where the other end is to 

 be fastened. The first thread thus formed, being 

 drawn tight and fixed at each end, the Spider runs 

 on it backwards and forwards, still doubling and 

 strengthening it, as on this depends the stability of 

 the who!e. The scaffolding thus completed, it 

 makes a number of threads parallel to the first, and 

 then crosses them with others, the clammy substance 

 of which they are formed serving, when first made, 

 to bind them to each other. At the bottom of the 

 web a kind of funnel is constructed, in which the 

 little creature lies concealed. In this den of destruc- 

 tion it watches with unremitted assiduity till its prey 

 is entangled, on which it instantly darts with inevit- 

 able ruin. 



The web of the Spider differs from those woven 



