520 
SPIDER. 
feet are dried up ; and then, being unable to con- 
struct a web for herself, she either forces a young 
spider to give up her net, or perishes for want of 
subsistence. 
The faculty which many animals possess of coun- 
terfeiting death in order to disarm, and thus escape 
from their enemies, is extended to the spider ; 
which, if much alarmed, will contract all its limbs 
and become perfectly motionless. In this state the 
insect will remain, while under the influence of fear, 
notwithstanding the severest treatment we can in- 
flict upon it, and will even suffer itself to be torn 
into pieces without exhibiting the smallest sign of 
life. This obstinate perseverance is the more re- 
markable, as it is not owing, as some have supposed, 
to a state of insensibility ; since if the cause of ter- 
ror be removed, the spider will soon stretch forth its 
legs and run away. 
We must in the next place proceed to notice the 
operations of the garden spider, Aranea horticula i 
Linn., which differs from the domestic kind in seve- 
ral particulars. The labours of this species appear 
to be very peculiar, and the manner of constructing 
the web very different from the rest. Many sup- 
pose this insect flies when they see her pass from 
branch to branch without any apparent support, but 
this is not the case : she places herself upon the end 
of a branch, or some other projecting body, and 
there fastens her thread ; after which with her two 
hind feet she squeezes her dugs, and presses out 
one or more threads of two or three yards in length, 
