A live Snake suspended by Spiders. 



309 



As this extraordinary case has beep doubted, we think it fair to 

 annex the account of another witness, which will be seen to be sim- 

 ilar to that of Judge Cumings, but not identical. — Ed. 



New York, August 2G, 18'24. 



TO PROFESSOR SII.LIMAN'. 



S!i 



Dear Sir — Enclosed I take the liberty of sending you a rude 

 sketch of a curiosity, which came under my observation a short time 

 since. A gentleman residing in the village of Batavia, N. Y., on 

 going into his wine cellar, discovered a striped snake, about ten inch- 

 es in length, suspended by, and from the web of a spider, in a man- 

 ner precisely similar to the enclosed sketch. From a survey of the 

 premises, it would appear that the 

 snake had taken up his abode upon cmke ^„.^., 

 one of the shelves in the cellar, when ^llii 



the spiders (for there are three which 

 appear to be engaged as partners in 

 the business,) first formed the design 

 of making him their captive. For 

 this purpose they formed a large web 

 upon the under side of a shelf direct- 

 ly above the snake, from which they 

 descended and made fast a large num- 

 ber of fibres to different parts of his 

 body, bracing them in every direction, 

 so as to prevent his escape and render 

 their operations more secure, they 

 next proceeded to muzzle him by 

 winding a web many times around his 



head, so as entirely to deprive him of i .,iiiiiiiiiijiiii,iiiiiiimNiii n uii„i ii,i i 1 1 , -;:^^ 



the use of his mouth. Having thus 



secured him, they next set to work to suspend him from their web. 

 You will observe a knot in the tail of the snake. How this was 

 formed I am unable to say, but certain it is, that the spiders took 

 advantage of it and by winding the knot with a web, prevented the 

 possibility of his loosing it. They then apparently proceeded to at- 

 tach a large number of fibres, running from various parts of the web 

 above, to the loop formed by tlie knot which they glued and fastened 

 together by winding them with another fibre, thus forming a strong 



