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 J mines, 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 Tegenci - 
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, — 
“ Aud hush'd in grim repose, expects its insect prey.” 
No 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 
* Aptores, ii. 4. 
