238 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
fly, around which the cord had been wound as a windlass, with which the 
snake had been hauled up. A great number of threads were fastened to 
: the cord above and to the rolling side of this ball, to keep it (as 
= “faa the observers thought) from unwinding and so letting the snake 
eae: down. It was conjectured that the cord must have extended 
from the focus of the web to the shelf below, where the snake was 
lying when first captured, and being made fast to the loop in his tail, was 
then carried up to the fly about midway of the cord. By rolling the fly 
over and over, the cord was wound around it, both from above and below, 
and the snake gradually hoisted until its head was one inch or more above 
the shelf. In this situation the snake hung alive for several days (three 
according to one statement, five according to another), when the web was 
broken by careless observers so as to allow part of the snake’s body to rest 
upon the shelf below. Thus the serpent remained, unnoticed by the spi- 
ders after its fall, until eight days after its discovery, when some large 
ants were found devouring the dead body. 
The witnesses state that when the snake was first observed “ several 
large spiders were upon him sucking his juices;” that it “furnished a 
continued feast for several large spiders,’ until its fall; that “during 
the day no spiders were visible in or about the web, but at night there 
were three, much smaller than the common fly, seen feeding upon the 
body of the snake.” 
One might well be excused for withholding credence from such a story, 
although the acts were vouched for by abundance of respectable lay testi- 
mony. Accepting the account as true, or at least probable, I would make 
the following inferences: first, the description of the web, although suffi- 
ciently indefinite, leaves little doubt that the snake was originally taken 
in a snare of a species of Tubeweaver, and most probably by the Medicinal 
spider, Tegenaria medicinalis, Hentz.1. The broad sheeted web of this 
spider is frequently found in cellars, which are favorite haunts. 
Who It builds near windows, in the angles and along the sides of 
a ‘is walls, having its tubular den in a crack or opening laid along 
Snake? 20 angle. The sheet is usually drawn upward until its exterior 
margin is higher than the plane of the entrance of the tube. 
There is thus formed a sort of pouch within which insects often fall 
and so are readily captured by the spider, who mounts guard at the door 
of her den. Over the door the tube frequently rises into a sort of tower. 
(Fig. 221.) The webs of this species are sometimes of considerable length— 
eighteen or twenty inches—and those which have been standing for some 
time will be found overlaid by several successive thicknesses of silken 
sheeting, discolored by the soot and dust of the cellar. A specimen of 
this material may readily be taken and mounted upon white cardboard, 
“ 
1 Probably the T. Durhami of Europe. 
