SPIDERS AND COBWEBS. 253 



the other a sort of mucilage, which, being drawn out 

 of the spinnerets of the spider, hardens in contact with 

 the air and becomes the silken thread that serves the 

 spinner so many useful purposes. 



The head of the spider is armed with a pair of 

 sharp pincers or curved fangs, called falces, from a 

 Latin word meaning a sickle. When not in use 

 these are folded back between the rows of teeth ; but 

 when the jaws are opened to bite, the falces erect 

 themselves and are thrust into any object that comes 

 between them. Near the point of each of these fangs 

 is a little hole so small as to require a high mag- 

 nifying power to see it, and this, when the falces are 

 used, gives out a tiny drop of venom, that, minute as 

 it is, makes the wound it enters a fatal one to the 

 insect captured. 



Spiders very seldom bite anything besides the in- 

 sects upon which they feed, but when attacked and 

 unable to escape they open their jaws and try to bite, 

 and if they are large specimens with strong jaws 

 they may succeed in doing so ; " but, notwithstanding 

 the number of stings and pimples that are laid to 

 their charge, undoubted cases of their biting the hu- 

 man skin are extremely rare," says Professor Pack- 

 ard, who has made them the study of a lifetime, " and 

 the stories of death, insanity, and lameness from 

 spider bites are probably all untrue." 



The spinning of webs for the capture of their prey 

 distinguishes spiders from all other living creatures. 

 Not only is the silk of which the web is composed 

 used for constructing nets for the capture of their 



