340 
NATURAL HISTORY 
OC 
a pullet’s egg, divided horizontally, and suspended by 
the threads of the insect, which are of a silvery white, 
and stronger than silk. It carries its eggs in a little bag 
under its belly, from which the young ones come out, 
and for a time live in the same web in amity; but, when 
grown up, are mortal enemies. Whenever they meet 
they fi^ht with violence; their battle only ends with the 
death of the weakest; whose dead body is carefully stored 
away in the larder. 
Common Spider. (PI. 55.) There are several spe- 
cies of this insect, but every kind has two divisions in 
its body. The fore part containing the head and breast, 
is separated from the hinder part, or belly, by a very 
slender thread, through which, however, there is a com- 
munication from one part to the other. The fore partis 
covered with a hard shell, as well as the legs, which ad- 
o the breast; the hinder part is clothed with a sup- 
in y beset all over with hair. They have several 
1 round the head, brilliant and acute; these are 
nes eight in number, sometimes but six; two be- 
o before, and the rest on each side. Like all 
ts, their eyes are immoveable, and they want 
this organ is fortified with a transparent 
seance, which at once secures and assists their 
As the animal procures its subsistence by the 
mo. watchful attention, so large a number of eyes is 
necessary to give it the earliest information of the cap- 
ture of its prey. They have all eight legs, jointed like 
those of lobsters, and similar also in other respects. But 
its principal qualification is making its web, by which 
means its existence entirely depends. 
The females lay six or seven hundred eggs in bags, 
which they make on purpose, lined within side by a down 
which they pluck from their own breast. These eggs, 
are generally deposited in August or September, and 
about sixteen days afterwards the young are hatched. 
Scorpion. (Pi. 55.) The scorpion has a distant re- 
semblance in shape to the lobster, but is infinitely more 
ugly: it also casts its skin as the lobster does its shell* 
They have eight legs, besides two claws and eight eyes. 
ev 
