Facts and Thoughts about Spiders. 189 



study of the habits of this dusty domestic creature 

 leads us incidentally into the realms of fable and 

 romance. It is remarkable for the extreme length 

 of its legs, and resembles in colour and general ap- 

 pearance a crane fly, but is double the size of that 

 insect. It has a singular method of protecting 

 itself : when attacked or approached even, gathering 

 its feet together and fastening them to the centre 

 of its web, it swings itself round and round with 

 the velocity of a whirligig, so that it appears like a 

 mist on the web, offering no point for an enemy to 

 strike at. When a fly is captured the spider 

 approaches it cautiously and spins a web round it, 

 continually narrowing the circle it describes, until 

 the victim is inclosed in a cocoon-like covering. 

 This is a common method with spiders ; but the 

 intelligence — for I can call it by no other word — of 

 the Pholcus has supplemented this instinctive pro- 

 cedure with a very curious and unique habit. The 

 Pholcus, in spite of its size, is a weak creature, 

 possessing little venom to despatch its prey with, 

 so that it makes a long and laborious task of killing 

 a fly. A fly when caught in a web is a noisy crea- 

 ture, and it thus happens that when the Daddy- 

 longlegs — as Anglo- Argentines have dubbed this 

 species — succeeds in snaring a captive the shrill 

 outrageous cries of the victim are heard for a long 

 time — often for ten or twelve minutes. This noise 

 greatly excites other spiders in the vicinity, and 

 presently they are seen quitting their webs and 

 hurrying to the scene of conflict. Sometimes the 

 captor is driven off, and then the strongest or most 

 daring spider carries away the fly. But where a 



