THE SNARE- WE A VERS, 191 
house-spider instead of carelessly sweeping her web 
away, and you will find that she lays her threads 
roughly in all directions in the corner of the room, 
running from one to another till she has filled it up 
with a fine web, not sticky, but so entangled that 
the flies catch their feet in its meshes. In one 
corner you will find a little silken tube like a 
thimble which she has made as a house to hide 
in, out of sight of her prey. Her web will last 
for many weeks, while the garden-spider must spin 
afresh or mend her web every twenty-four hours, but 
on the other hand the house-spider is less likely to 
have an abundant supply of insects and her web is 
often ruthlessly destroyed. She will sometimes live 
from six to eight years, and each year she lays her 
eggs in a cocoon and hides them in a tuft of silk 
thickened with scraps of whitewash and plaster, and 
broods over them till the young ones are born. In 
the walls of some outhouse or warm greenhouse you 
may often find small spiders' webs in the summer 
time, with three or four cocoons in them, and 
numbers of tiny spiders creeping out upon the web. 
Then look carefully on a summer's morning 
among the gorse and heath of a common, and you 
will find delicate webs spread almost on the surface 
of the ground. Instead of trampling these under foot, 
seek out the centre of each web, and there, in many 
cases, you will find a hole leading straight into a 
tunnel in the ground. This tunnel will be lined by 
a tough web, while at the bottom the little spider will 
be crouching, her feet resting on the threads, and 
ready in a moment to dart out when the toils are 
shaken. This spider has learnt how to hide herseli 
