io6 



NATURE STUDY 



a silken thread which is at- 

 tached to the bottom or sides 

 of the glass jar. Take out 

 from the jar one of the house 

 spiders on the end of a pencil. 

 The spider will drop from the 

 pencil not free, but attached 

 to a delicate almost invisible 

 silken thread which issues 

 from the posterior tip of the 

 body (fig. 62). By quickly 

 lifting the pencil before the 

 spider reaches the table or 

 floor the presence of the holcl- 



Fig. Ii3. A ground spider. 



Fig. 62. A spider falling. 



ing thread may be demonstrated. 

 After the children have ob- 

 served the live spiders, give them 

 dead spiders to examine. These 

 dead spiders should be of the 

 larger sort, the ground spiders 

 (fig. 63), in order that the parts 

 of the body referred to in the 

 following notes can be readily 

 made out. How many legs has 

 a spider? There are four pairs of 

 true legs; a pair of shorter pro- 

 ctsses which look, at first glance, 

 like legs, and which are situated 

 in front of the first pair of true 

 legs, are feelers or papi. They 



