SEPTEMBER. 237 



position at the table, directly facing its web, with an avail- 

 able supply of food; and probably of my personality, 

 otherwise, it had no conception. It did not, I think, go 

 so far as to distinguish me from others ; but still it can be 

 said that the spider had proved teachable. 



Sir John Lubbock, in a recent volume on " Animal In- 

 telligence," does not consider that spiders have good eye- 

 sight at all ; but certainly my " tent " specimens saw what 

 they were about, or, if not, by what means were they 

 guided to act as I have described ? Indeed, one seemed 

 even to see in the dark, but in this case, I think, the exact 

 bearings were taken and it felt its way along — something, 

 by the way, that was truly marvelous, considering the ra- 

 pidity of the creature's movements. 



Another cunning spider in my tent had an enormous 

 web attached to the roof and around the ridge-pole. To 

 it I made daily many offerings of house-flies. It seemed 

 at last to know me and expect them, so I tested the creat- 

 ure's patience, if not its ingenuity. Filling a homoeo- 

 pathic vial with flies, I placed it just beyond the web and 

 suspended it by a thread to the pole. The spider made 

 several attempts to reach them from the nearest point of 

 the web, and, failing in this, made an addition to it, and so 

 secured the vial, but could, of course, go no farther. Daily 

 additional webs were placed about the little bottle until it 

 was almost concealed. The flies were all dead on the third 

 day, and on the morning of the fourth the bottle was lying 

 on the floor of the tent. I do not know, but suspect that 

 the spider pitched it overboard in disgust. 



A word more concerning spiders. About noon one 

 clear, warm, quiet September day I chanced to pause at 

 a turnstile before going through, and at that moment 

 caught sight of a curious spider. It appeared to be stand- 

 ing upon its head and fore legs, and was quite motionless. 

 On examination I found that it was spinning almost in- 



