WINGLES.* INSECTS. 



397 



apparently enjoying the air, and if disturbed shakes the net ao 

 violently that its shape is completely obscured by the rapidity of 

 the vibrations. 



The House Spidee makes a thicker and irregular web, and 

 hides itself at the bottom o^f a silken tunnel communicating with 

 the web. An acquaintance of mine had so far tamed a huge house 

 spider, that it would come and take a fly out of his hand. He 

 states, that as it sat at the bottom of its den, its eyes gleamed like 

 diamonds. 



Several endeavors have been made to procure silk froui 

 spiders, but although a sufficient quantity has been obtained to 

 weave gloves from, yet spiders are so pugnacious that they cannot 

 be kept together. The eggs of the Spiders are enclosed in a silken 

 bag, and when hatched, the young keep closely together, and when 

 dispersed by an alarm, soon reassemble. 



The Tarantula, whose bite was fabled to produce convul- 

 sions which could only be appeased by music, is a spider of con- 

 siderable size, inhabiting the south of Europe. It lives in holes 

 •vbout four inches deep in the ground. 



34 



Th« Soorpton. 



