338 



LETTER XIII. 



FOOD OF INSECTS — cow W^f. 

 STRATAGEMS EMPLOYED IN PROCURING IT. 



The stratagems of insects in obtaining their food are now to 

 engage our attention. I shall not dwell on those inartificial 

 modes of surprising their prey, of which examples may be 

 found amongst almost every order of insects, such as watching 

 behind a leaf or other object affording concealment until its 

 approach, but shall proceed to describe the various artifices 

 of the race of spiders, of which there are several hundred 

 distinct species, differing essentially from each other both in 

 characters and manners. 



Many of these are constantly under our eyes ; and were it 

 not that we are accustomed to neglect what is the subject of 

 daily occurrence, we should never behold a spider's web 

 without astonishment. What, if we had not witnessed it, 

 would seem more incredible than that any animal should spin 

 threads ; weave these threads into nets more admirable than 

 ever fowler or fisherman fabricated ; suspend them with the 

 nicest judgment in the place most abounding in the wished- 

 for prey, and there concealed, watch patiently its approach ? 

 In this case, as in so many others, we neglect actions in 

 minute animals, which in the larger would excite our endless 

 admiration. How would the world crowd to see a fox which 

 should spin ropes, weave them into an accurately-meshed net, 

 and extend this net between two trees for the purpose of 

 entangling a flight of birds ? Or should we think we had 

 ever expressed sufficient wonder at seeing a fish which ob- 

 tained its prey by a similar contrivance ? Yet there would, 

 in reality, be nothing more marvellous in their procedures 

 than in those of spiders, which, indeed, the minuteness of the 

 ao:ent renders more wonderful. 



