XX11. INTRODUCTION. 



outhouso door had been fraudulently opened or not. The door 

 itself was uninjured, and the prisoner was finally acquitted on 

 proof that the keyhole on the morning of its examination was 

 found covered with cobwebs ; from this the Counsel for the 

 defence argued that it could not possibly have been touched 

 during the previous night, in which the alleged opening of the 

 door had taken place. The defence would have fallen through 

 at once had it been known that such webs might have been, and 

 probably tho one in question was, spun in the course of half an 

 hour or less. 



The skill and craft of spiders is also very evident in the way in 

 which many of them deal with their prey when entangled, or 

 otherwise captured. An instance of this is noted (p. 78) in 

 respect to Pholcus pliahngioides, which, like some other spiders, 

 winds its prey up tightly with silken lines. Another spider, 

 Misumena vatia, Clerck., lying in wait in the blooms of flowers, 

 seizes the bees and other insects which frequent them. I onco 

 observed one of these spiders, lying in wait in a rose, capture a 

 butterfly (Lycama, phlceasj ; which was seized and firmly held by 

 the slender pedicle connecting the head and thorax — in fact by 

 the neck — the very best point for overpowering it ; on the same 

 principle as that on which a bull-dog pins the bull by the nose, 

 or a deer-hound the deer by the ear. This mode of seizure has 

 also been adopted in all the instances that have come under my 

 own observation, whether the prey were a butterfly, a bee, or 

 any other insect. 



Although exceedingly voracious, spiders are sometimes (when 

 full-grown) able to endure long fasts with impunity. For an 

 instance, in my own experience, of an eighteen months' fast, 

 during which time the spider appeared to be strong and healthy. 

 See Zoologist 1853, p. 3766. Mr. Blackwall (Spid. Great Brit. 

 and Irel., p. 6) records a similar instance. 



Spiders Nests and Egg Oocoons. 

 Although the two great groups of spiders mentioned above 

 are tho only ones in which snares are spun to entrap their prey, 

 all spiders can spin, and numbers form silken linings to holes in 



