iced the
corner seemed filled up with web and fragments of insects, and when I
examined it more closely there appeared a large round ball of eggs, over
which the spider had spun some web, and then had collected all the legs
and wings of her prey and stuck them carelessly here and there in the
web so as to conceal her nest, and make it look like the remains of an
old cobweb. Over this nest she kept careful watch. One could not drive
her from it; she only left it for a moment to spring upon a fly, and
would return with her food immediately and resume her watchful life in
the corner. At length the young spiders were hatched in countless
numbers; they crept about the tunnels, and though so minute as to be
mere specks, they were perfect in form, active in seeking for prey, and
appeared perfectly able to take care of themselves and begin life on
their own account.
I had kept the Tegenaria more than a year in confinement, and having
shown such admirable motherly instincts, I thought she had earned the
reward of liberty. No doubt she welcomed "the order of release"! At any
rate, she scampered away under some tree-roots, and possibly resides
there with her numerous family to this day.
Spiders hunt their prey in a variety of ways--some by spinning their
beautiful web, with which we are all familiar; others, as the Zebra
spiders, catch flies by leaping suddenly upon them, and these may often
be seen on window-sills watching some coveted insect, drawing slowly
nearer to the victim, till, by a well-directed spring, it can be
secured. There are nearly three hundred species of spiders in this
country, and nearly all spin and weave their silken threads in some way,
but each in different fashions, according to their mode of life. The
female spider is the spinner, and her supply is about 150 yards. When
she has used that amount a few days' rest will enable her to secrete a
similar quantity.
With great pains the spider's silk has been obtained and woven into a
delicate kind of material; but as each spider only yields one grain of
silk, and 450 were required to produce one yard, the process was found
to be impracticable. The insect possesses silk of two colours,
silver-grey and yellow; one is used for the foundation-lines of the web,
and the other for the interlacing threads. The silk is drawn by the
spider from its four spinnerets, and issues from them in a soft, viscid
state, but it hardens by exposure to the air. If a web is exami
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