SPIDERS, SCORPIONS, AND MITES. 187 



very hairy, and usually black, gray, or reddish-brown in 

 colour. These monsters prey even upon small birds • a 

 statement which has been denied upon insufficient grounds, 

 but which rests on the concurrent testimony of such men 

 as Perty, Stedman, Moreau de Jonnes, and Palisot de 

 Beauvois. They do not, however, spin nets, but steal 

 upon their prey, and overcome it by violence. 



The Spider which is so common in our houses, filling 

 the angles of rooms, the crevices of old walls, and the in- 

 terstices of the foliage in shrubs and hedges, with a dense 

 web, belongs to the sedentary division. It is the Tegena- 

 ria domestica of zoologists. The web is nearly horizontal, 

 with a tube at the inner part, within which the Spider is 

 ordinarily lodged, motionless, with its head projecting 

 and its fore feet stretched out upon the expanse of the 

 web, — 



"And hush'd in grim repose, expects its insect prey." 



JS"o sooner does a thoughtless fly alight on the web, than 

 out rushes the Spider with lightning rapidity, seizes it 

 with her fangs, and carries it into the den to be sucked 

 and exhausted of its juices. Walckenaer thus describes 

 her domestic economy : " She constructs a bag of silk 

 shaped like a purse, ballasted with bits of plaster, for the 

 suspension of her cocoon. The orifice of the bag she 

 covers with a little web, on which she sits, watching 

 without ceasing for the appearance of her offspring. Her 

 cocoon, formed of fine web, contains about 150 eggs, 

 which are laid in May and June." 



There is a little Spider (Argyroneta aquatica), found 

 occasionally in ponds and rivers, which turns its spinning 



* Apteres. ii. 4. 



