A YOUNG NATURALIST. 235 



as soon as it is exposed to the air. These reservoirs are pierced 

 with about a thousand holes, from each of which proceeds a 

 thread invisible to the naked eye, for it takes a thousand of them 

 to form the thread the spider is now spinning," 



" How sorry I am now that I hadn't collected more of these 

 curious insects ! Some we have met with were very curious.'' 



" In the first place," I replied, " spiders are not insects ; they 

 have both heart and lungs, but insects breathe through air-pipes.* 

 Added to this, insects have antennae and undergo metamorphoses, 

 which is not the case with the spider. You must recollect, too, 

 that the spider is akin to the scorpion." 



" Yes ; but scorpions don't know how to spin." 



" Well, all spiders do not possess this art. One of the species 

 you were looking at just now lives on plants, and would be much 

 embarrassed if it happened to fall into the web of its spinning 

 sister; added to which, it would run no small risk of being 

 devoured." 



"Will spiders eat one another ?" 



" Without the least scruple, and scorpions do the same. It is, 

 in fact, a family vice." 



" I am not at all astonished, then, that the whole family are so 



ugly." 



" If they were ever so beautiful, it would make no difference 

 in their evil disposition. They have, however, some good 

 qualities, such, for instance, as patience and resolution. The 

 poor spider, now, that we are looking at, is working desperately 

 " to catch a prey which is constantly escaping. Sometimes it is 

 the wind which destroys the web so industriously woven ; some- 

 times a great beetle plunges heavily through the net. Neverthe- 

 less, the spider is not the least discouraged ; he again sets his 

 snare, and, whilst he is quietly watching for the game necessary 

 for his subsistence, it too often happens that he is himself carried 

 off in the beak of some bird." 



Lucien and I now went among the trees in quest of something 



* The air-pipes are two vessels, one on each side, extending the whole length 

 of the body, provided with branches and ramifications. They serve for the 

 reception and distribution of the air. 



