Some Interesting Experiments. 
237 
confident that when the spider loses the cocoon she never looks 
for it but feels after it. This is not so strange as at first ap¬ 
pears, for it is quite possible that the spider constructs the 
egg-sac, deposits her eggs in it, closes the aperture, and at¬ 
taches it to her body without ever seeing it. 
The pages of notes that we have collected on this point would 
be tedious reading, but we offer a few experiments in evidence 
of our view of the matter. 
The cocoon was taken from a female of Pirata montanus. She 
seemed much disturbed and hunted for it, but though it was 
only a few inches away she did not find it. The cocoon was 
then placed one-fifteenth of an inch from her, and still she did 
not take it. She several times passed very close but until she 
touched it she did not notice it. The experiment was repeated 
upon another spider of this species with the same results. We 
next tried Pardosa pallida, and found that she also depended 
upon touch and not upon sight to recover her eggs. The same 
was true of Pirata minuta. No matter how anxious she was to 
find her eggs, and no matter how close they were brought to 
her, she never recognized them except by touch. We then 
changed the form of the experiment by suspending the cocoon 
of Pirata montanus at the end of a thread. As the spider 
searched anxiously about, it was lowered until she could barely 
pass beneath without touching it. This arrangement required 
some manipulation but we finally succeeded in suspending sev¬ 
eral cocoons at exactly the right height, and then watched the 
spiders as they passed and repassed without observing them. 
If, however, we allowed the cocoon to graze one of the posterior 
legs the spider instantly turned and seized it. The position of 
the eyes of these spiders is such that unless they were totally 
blind they must have seen these suspended cocoons, but they 
are as dependent upon touch for recognizing their eggs as 
thorough-bred bloodhounds are upon their sense of smell when 
hunting their game, or as English greyhounds upon sight. 
Exactly the same experiments were performed upon Dolomedes 
tenebrosus and Micromata carolinensis with exactly the same 
results. Their distress at losing their eggs was great and their 
