THE WATBU-SI’IDER. 
267 
wliich they bestow in the preservation of it. They stick it 
by means of their glutinous fluid to the end of their body ; 
so that the animal, when thus loaded, appears as if she had 
one body placed behind another. If this bag be separated 
from her by any accident, she employs all her assiduity to 
stick it again in its former situation, and seldom abandons 
her treasure but with her life. When the young ones arc 
excluded from their shells, within the bag, they remain for 
some time in their conhnement, until the female, instinctively 
knowing their maturity, bites open their prison, and sets 
them free. But her parental care does not terminate with 
their exclusion : she receives them upon her back for some 
time, until they have strength to provide for themselves, when 
they leave her, never to return, and each begins a separate 
manufactory of its own. The young ones begin to spin when 
they can scarcely be discerned ; and prepare for a life of 
plunder before they have strength to overcome. 
Thus there is no insect to which they are not enemies, 
but what is more barbarous still, spiders are the enemies of 
each other. M. Reaumur, who was fond of making expe- 
riments upon insects, tried to turn the labours of the spider 
to human advantage, and actually made a pair of gloves 
from their webs. For this purpose, he collected a large num- 
ber of those insects together : he took care to have them con- 
stantly supplied with flies, and the ends of young feathers, 
fresh picked from chickens and pigeons, wliich being full of 
blood, are a diet that spiders are particularly fond of. But, 
notwithstanding all his care, he was soon convinced that it 
was impracticable to rear them, since they were of such a 
malignant nature, that they could never be brought to live 
in society ; but instead of their usual food, chose to devour 
each other. Indeed, were it practicable to reconcile them to 
each other, it would require too much attendance to rear up 
a sufficient number to make the project any way useful. 
Their thread is four or five times finer than that of the silk- 
worm ; so that upon thesmallest calculation, there must have 
been sixty thousand spiders to make a single pound of silk. 
That which Reaumur made use of was only the web in which 
they deposited their eggs, which is live times stronger than 
their ordinary manufacture. 
Of this animal there are several kinds, slightly differing 
from each other, either in habits or conformation. The wa- 
ter-spider is the most remarkableof the number. This insect 
resembles the common spider in its appearance, except that 
its hinder part is made rather in the shape of a nine-pin than 
a ball. They differ in being able to live as well by land as 
