THE SPIDERS. 315 



leaves, etc., watching for their prey, while still others, like 

 the so-called trap-door spiders, of which we shall presently 

 give more details, only go out hunting at night, and remain 

 during the day in underground passages dug out by them- 

 selves, the opening closed by a cover which they can open and 

 shut at pleasure. As spiders spin different kinds of webs, 

 says an intelligent writer in Chamber's Journal, so also they 

 live in all kinds of houses ; and there is as much difference 

 between these as between a Gothic tower and an Italian 

 villa, between a Swiss chalet and a wigwam in the Terra del 

 Fuego. 



One of the most artistic nets is spun by the Epeira basilica, 

 quite lately observed by the Rev. H. C. McCook, of Phila- 

 delphia, during his Texan ant excursions on the banks of the 

 Colorado. Within a large pyramid-shaped net of irregularly 

 interwoven threads, hangs an extremely neatly spun semi- 

 spherical dome, from three to eight inches wide at the 

 bottom, resembling to a certain extent the dome-shaped 

 temples or basilicas of the early Christians, and thence the 

 architect takes its name ! "I have," says the discoverer, 

 " never met with a prettier piece of work among the many 

 spider's webs that I have seen and studied." From the 

 centre of the dome hangs the gracefully-shaped, brilliantly 

 colored, glittering builder, and watches for its prey. But 

 what makes this spider particularly interesting is that it 

 forms a perfect link or gradation between the wheel and 

 the web-spiders a fact more fully discussed by Mr. McCook 

 in his article (" Proc. of the Aca. of Nat. of Philadelphia," 

 April, 1878). 



That all spiders use their threads for other purposes than 

 weaving their webs and before all things for making their 

 cocoons, as well as for getting from place to place, descend- 

 ing from heights, for flight, for enveloping their victims, for 

 lining their dwellings, for protection against the cold of 

 winter, etc. is so well known that it scarcely needs men- 

 tion. It is less well known that the emerged young at first 

 merely spin a very irregular web, and only gradually learn 

 to make a larger and finer one, so that here again as every- 

 where else practice and experience play a great part. 



Practice, experience, and reflexion must also guide the 

 spider in the important choice of the locality in which it 

 shall spin its nest, in order to catch the largest amount of 



