THE SPIDER. 



Lesson I. 



The oommon large, brown, long-legged spider (Fig. 1), which 

 spreads its web on plants and rests secorel; in the tube leading 

 downward from it, is the one described in these lessons. We nse 

 alcoholic specimens. The large black and yellow field and garden 

 spider is another excellent one for class nse, and is so common that 

 it ii easy to collect a sufficient number. Still another good one is 

 the great ronnd-web spider, often found 

 in barns, bnt its body is softer and more 

 easily injured. 



A small ronnd-web spider has also 

 bten imprisoned in a box with a glass 

 cover, where its movements could be 

 vatched. We have seen that it did not 

 rest until it had spun in every direction 

 through the box, so that it could go 

 aoywhere in its new home without step- 

 ping off the threads. When this was 

 finished, it was fed with flies, and the 

 process of killing them carefully ob- 

 served, from the time when they were 

 first bound with tiny ropes till they were 

 let fall, dry and jniceless, to the bottom 

 of the box. 



The bodies of spiders are so soft and 

 so easily broken that it is absolutely 

 necessary to fasten them to bits of 

 cork by a pin through the thorax if they are not to be ruined in 

 the handling. A large pin and a bristle are also given to each 

 child, since the probes are too clumsy for use upon such little 

 creatures. 



F<icts Already Learned by Observation : 



The spider in the box has spun threads across it in^ 



78 



Fig. 1. 



