A RACE OF TELEGRAPHERS 13 
the Black Widow, a coal black spider, with a red 
spot on its abdomen. It spins an irregular web 
of very coarse silk, so coarse in fact that its handi¬ 
work is easily recognized at a glance. Its retreat 
is located under chips and stones and in holes in 
the ground about outbuildings. It is one that 
I would advise leaving strictly alone. The In¬ 
dians of California, I am told, rank the Widow 
with the rattlesnake, and in the long ago used to 
make poisoned arrows by rubbing the tips with 
a mash made of these spiders. 
“ Zoologists designate the spider as 4 the class 
Arachnida,’ getting their hint for the nomencla¬ 
ture from the familiar old myth which relates how 
Arachne, the beautiful young weaver, because of 
her overbearing self-confidence and boastfulness, 
was changed by Juno into a spider, and doomed 
to spin forever near the haunts of man, getting 
her food as best she might from the skill of her 
snares. Certainly many of Arachne’s descend¬ 
ants show wondrous originality in their adapta¬ 
tions of the weaver’s art! Not all spiders, how¬ 
ever, in this day and age, catch their prey by 
means of webs. The wolf-spiders, for instance, 
stalk their prey and spring on it from ambush; 
others dig pitfalls or burrows; one species of this 
class has a cunning trap-door to its retreat, an¬ 
other builds a high turreted watch-tower. The 
lynx-spider comes out boldly in the open and 
