their susceptibility to poison of all kinds; moreover, the
spiders employed were of the _geometrical_ kinds, which have never been
so much feared as the larger _field_ and _hunting_ spiders. Indeed, it
may be found that among spiders there is as great a difference in
respect to venom as among serpents, and that those which depend upon
their jaws for taking and holding their prey, such as the field and
hunting spiders, are poisonous, while the web-builders which ensnare
their victims are not so. In regard to our spiders, I have caused a
large one to bite, so as to draw blood, a kitten three days old, and the
kitten has not appeared to suffer in the least on that account.

They are very quiet insects, and never appear disturbed at what goes on
about them; neither do they run away and hide in holes and corners, like
our common spiders; but if their webs are injured, or they are startled
by a noise, they will shake themselves from side to side in their webs,
so as to be wholly invisible. Their natural food is insects of all
kinds; but they soon learn to eat soft flesh, such as the liver of
chickens, for which, as well as for water, they will sometimes stretch
themselves and turn in their webs so as to take it from the point of a
pin or camel's-hair pencil. Besides water to drink, they require an
atmosphere saturated with moisture, like that of their native island,
the relative humidity being about _seventy_ on the Hygrodeik scale. If
stroked upon the back, they often raise their bodies as a cat does, and
sometimes put back a leg to push away your finger. They may be allowed
to run over one's person with perfect safety, but, if suddenly seized,
will hold on with tooth as well as nail.

They are quite economical, and every few days, when the web has become
too dry and dusty for use, will gather it up in a mass, which they stuff
into their jaws and masticate for hours, swallowing the gum, but
throwing out the rest, with the little particles of dust, in the form of
a hard black pellet,--an instance rare, if not indeed unique, of an
animal eating a substance already excreted from its body.

Here I must close, though much against my will. It would please me to
describe, as it has almost fascinated me to observe, the doings of my
spiders, as they grew older and made their webs in the Wardian cases to
which they were removed when too many and too large for the jars; how
the young are gregarious, and move from place to place in a