















The Spinner Family 
so many of the four-footed animals 
have learned, that is, to lie low and 
appear a part of the object upon which 
they lie. I have seen a garden spider 
that was accidentally knocked out of 
her bell chamber lie perfectly still as 
if dead for more than half an hour. 
Many spiders are protected by their 
colors; the ground-spiders wear dull 
shades resembling the soil and sand 
on which they live. A sister of the 
garden spider, who lives in the woods, 
stretches her home among the dead 
branches of shrubs, tucking herself 
away during the day somewhere about 
the dead twigs’; and so closely does she 
resemble in color the dry branches 
that it is impossible to spy her out. 
A comical little crab-spider that 
lives on the golden-rod, dresses in a 
bright green gown until the constella- 
tion of yellow flowers appears on the 
plant, when it changes to the same 
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