294 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 
holding every radius taut, though slightly bagging at the hub, Carry 
the finger outward to this clump of bushes. What is this? A nest! The 
leaves have been spun together deftly until they make a beautiful cap 
shaped or helmet shaped habitation, within which, if you will take the 
pains to stoop a little, you may see the goodly proportions and the fair 
colors of the Insular or the Shamrock spider. These nests are built on 
every side, and vary in their forms according to the character of the 
plant of whose leaves they have been constructed. 
The closing days of August have already begun to tint some of the 
bushes. These sumacs have assumed their party colors of red and ecrim- 
son and brown, so that our aranead dwells within a_ habita- 
tion of divers hues like the tabernacle in which ancient Israel 
worshiped. Of course, the spider had no part in the selection 
of these varied colors for her tent, and has no share in the enjoyment 
of the discoverer who notes the pretty effect it has on her domicile, 
Nevertheless, it adds to the pleasure of the scene, and helps to impress the 
observer with a sense of the fitness of all the surroundings not only, but 
of these industrious creatures in the midst of their surroundings. 
I had never thought it possible that by any combination of favoring 
circumstances so many of these handsome spiders could have been pre- 
served in so limited a space. But here everything appears to 
have united to protect them from their natural enemies. ‘These 
bushes are just the sites in which spiders love to spin. This 
slope, with its sunny outlook towards the east and south, has protected 
from winter chill the eggs within cocoons, and warmed them into life 
when springtime came. With them have come also swarms of the insects 
which form their natural food. ‘The place, too, is a lonely one as far 
as man is concerned; for, besides the farmer’s occasional visits, only now 
and then a straggler, or a lover of fields like myself, happens along. A 
cow or two may sometimes feed here and pick up the bits of pasture that 
grow between clumps of bushes and outcropping boulders of granite. Here, 
too, come, in the summer season, the women and children to gather huckle- 
berries. But the very vision of the many spider webs, and particularly of 
the great Argiope swinging at the centre of her hub, is enough to cause 
them to shy away and leave unplucked the tempting clusters of berries 
that hang around the dreaded snare. 
Other than these, few visitors come to the spot; and thus, largely de- 
livered from destructive enemies, warmed and cheered into life by the 
favoring slope, with abundant provision for spinning sites that give good 
and easy access to the low flying insects which supply Arachne’s larder, 
these creatures live and feed and grow and prosecute their loves, their 
wars, their maternal duties and cares, and die amidst the glowing foliage 
of autumn, having fulfilled as happy a destiny as one could reasonably 
hope for a child of the spider world, 
Tinted 
Nests. 
A Spider 
Paradise. 
ee athe, ale 
