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MEMORY OF SPIDERS. 45 
walls of the burrow and tower, and had evidently been beaten down and 
pushed in after the manner of Lycosids and Agalenads when beating in the 
spinningwork of their cocoons and the silk lining of their burrows and 
tubes. 
Mrs. Treat having learned how this spider, which had been taken from 
her grounds, had used the cotton, was led to make several experiments. 
She placed cotton by the side of seventeen burrows, both of the Turret 
and Tiger spiders, situated upon her lawn, and found eight of the number 
used the cotton as a lining, but none as artistically as the one above de- 
scribed. She then went to the edge of a wood, some distance away, and 
placed cotton by the side of eleven burrows there located. None of the 
occupants availed themselves of the artificial lining. This seems a curious 
fact, but the theory which the author uses to account for it, namely, that 
the individuals upon the lawn must have been descendants of species col- 
onized from New England in the neighborhood of a cotton manufactory, 
can hardly be accepted. My recollection is that 
all these creatures were natives of New Jersey. 
I am sure at least that the one which wove 
the cotton lining for me was a native New Jer- 
seyman, 
One specimen of those situated upon the 
lawn not only used the cotton fibre for the lin- 
ing, but also for a cover or door of its dwell- 
ing. This door she made smooth on 
A Door of : a iene 
Cotton, ‘the side, and fastened it firmly down 
on the outer edge of her wall. (Fig. 
39.) She did not make the same use of the cotton that she would of 
soft moss, which she sometimes uses in building. The fibre of the cot- 
ton was drawn out and interwoven among the sticks around the upper 
portion of the tower, and made to take the place of ordinary web work.! 
I have this nest in my collection and give a drawing thereof, Fig. 39. 
The use of the cotton is curious and interesting, and remotely suggestive 
of a door, perhaps. But such use is not clearly shown. These examples 
suggest no little elasticity of intellect on the part of these spiders, for 
they were at once able to perceive the usefulness of the new material 
brought within the range of their experience, and easily adapted it to their 
special needs in lining the interior of their towers. Were they conscious 
that such soft, pliable material permitted economy of silk secretion, and 
could that have been a motive for its use? These facts start a most inter- 
esting train of reflection and conjecture, and suggest a fruitful field of 
inquiry and experiment to one who may haye both disposition and oppor- 
tunity to engage therein, 
Fic. 39. Cotton utilized for a door. 
1 My Garden Pets, page 82. 
