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If conditions are favorable, our spider may journey for 

 miles in his self-made airship. He has, moreover the pow- 

 er of coming to earth at will for he has but to wind up in 

 a little ball with his legs sufficient of his supporting cord 

 to take away its buoyancy. 



Far from being as dreadful as generally supposed, I 

 think you will agree that some spiders at least may prove 

 interesting; you will never know how very interesting 

 until you go afield and study them in life. They all 

 have different manners of securing their prey and of 

 handling it afterwards ; they make interesting silk cocoons 

 of many forms to receive their eggs; they have interest- 

 ing methods of evading pursuit from their enemies as well 

 as ways of luring their victims. 



Nearly all creatures that have enemies have, or try 

 to devise, ways of escaping them. Because of the enmity 

 of wasps and because wasps do not hunt at night, the ma- 

 jority of spiders remain in concealment during daylight 

 but become active, spin their webs and catch their prey 

 at night. Even this does not serve to escape the solitary 

 huntress wasps for they ferret out their victims in their 

 hiding places. 



In the southwestern states there is a large vicious wasp 

 known as the Tarantula-hawk because of its fondness for 

 these large, poisonous spiders. This same wasp also preys 

 upon a slightly smaller spider known as the Trap-door 

 Spider, so called because, to escape this wasp, it makes a 

 silk-lined underground house covered with a perfectly-fit- 

 ting, silk-hinged cover; this cover is made of alternate lay- 

 ers of silk and earth, the top being a perfect imitation of 

 the surrounding ground. The spider runs into her home, 

 pulls the lid down, and stays during daylight trusting that 

 her hiding place may remain undiscovered. 



But our fields do not cater solely to those Nature-stu- 

 dents who desire to study insects for on every hand are 

 beautiful flowers, — daisies, buttercups, dandelions, bluets, 

 clovers, milkweeds, etc., turn their faces upward inviting 

 out inspection. If we make a little study of any of these 



