this one, which, not contented with a web like the rest of their congeners, take advantage of other materials to construct cells where, "hushed in grim repose," they "expect their insect prey.' The most simple of those spider-cells is constructed by a longish-bodied spider (Aranea holosericea, LINN.), which is a little larger than the common hunting-spider. It rolls up a leaf of the lilac or poplar, precisely in the same manner as is done by the leaf-rolling caterpillars, upon whose cells it sometimes seizes to save itself trouble, having first expelled, or perhaps devoured, the rightful owner. The spider, however, is not satisfied with the tapestry of the caterpillar, and always weaves a fresh set of her own, much more close and substantial.

Another spider, common in woods and copses (Epeira quadrata ?) weaves together a great number of leaves to form a dwelling for herself, and in front of it she spreads her toils for entrapping the unwary insects which stray thither. These, as soon as caught, are dragged into her den, and stored up for a time of scarcity. Here also her eggs are deposited and hatched in safety. When the cold weather approaches, and the leaves of her edifice wither, she abandons it for the more secure shelter of a hollow tree, where she soon dies; but the continuation of the species depends upon eggs, deposited in the nest before winter, and remaining to be hatched with the warmth of the ensuing summer.

The spider's den of united leaves, however, which has just been described, is not always useless when withered and deserted; for the dormouse usually selects it as a ready-made roof for its nest of dried grass. That those old spiders' dens are not accidentally chosen by the mouse, appears from the fact, that out of about a dozen mouse-nests of this sort found during winter in a copse between Lewisham and Bromley, Kent, every second or third one was furnished with such a roof.*

* J. R.

DIVING WATER-SPIDER.

That spiders may be able to breathe under water, we can well understand from their breathing like amphibious reptiles by means of gills; but there is an aquatic spider (Argyroneta aquatica, WALCKENAER) which is not contented, as a frog would be, with the air furnished by the water, but actually carries down a supply of air from the atmosphere to her subaqueous nest. This spider does not like stagnant-water, but prefers slow running streams, canals, and ditches, where she may often be seen, in the vicinity of London and elsewhere, living in her diving-bell, which shines through the water, like a little globe of silver: her singular economy was first, we believe, described by Clerck,* L. M. de Lignac,† and De Geer.

"The shining appearance," says Clerck, "proceeds either from an inflated globule surrounding the abdomen, or from the space between the body and the water. The spider, when wishing to inhale the air, rises to the surface, with its body still submersed, and only the part containing the spinneret rising just to the surface, when it briskly opens and moves its four teats. A thick coat of hair keeps the water from approaching or wetting the abdomen. It comes up for air about four times an hour or oftener, though I have good reason to suppose it can continue without it for several days together.

"I found in the middle of May one male and ten females, which I put into a glass filled with water, where they lived together very quietly for eight days. I put some duck-weed (Lemna) into the glass to afford them shelter, and the females began to stretch diagonal threads in a confused manner from it to the sides of the glass about half-way down. Each of the

#Aranei Suecici, Stockholm, 1757.

Mem. des Araign. Aquat. 12mo Paris, 1799.

females afterwards fixed a close bag to the edge of the glass, from which the water was expelled by the air from the spinneret, and thus a cell was formed capable of containing the whole animal. Here they remained quietly, with their abdomens in their cells, and their bodies still plunged in the water; and in a short time brimstone-coloured bags of eggs appeared in each cell, filling it about a fourth part. On the 7th of July several young ones swam out from one of the bags-all this time the old ones had nothing to eat, and yet they never attacked one another, as other spiders would have been apt to do.”*

"These spiders," says De Geer, "spin in the water a cell of strong, closely woven, white silk in the form of half the shell of a pigeon's egg, or like a diving-bell. This is sometimes left partly above water, but at others is entirely submersed, and is always attached to the objects near it by a great number of irregular threads. It is closed all round, but has a large opening below, which, however, I found closed on the 15th of December, and the spider living quietly within, with her head downwards. I made a rent in this cell and expelled the air, upon which the spider came out; yet though she appeared to have been laid up for three months in her winter quarters, she greedily seized upon an insect and sucked it. I also found that the male as well as the female constructs a similar subaqueous cell, and during summer no less than in winter."+ We have recently kept one of these spiders for several months in a glass of water, where it built a cell half under water, in which it laid its eggs.

CLEANLINESS OF SPIDERS.

When we look at the viscid material with which spiders construct their lines and webs, and at the * Clerck, Aranei Suecici, cap. viii. De Geer, Mem. des Insectes, vii. 312.

rough hairy covering (with a few exceptions) of their bodies, we might conclude that they would be always stuck over with fragments of the minute fibres which they produce. This, indeed, must often happen, did they not take careful precautions to avoid it for we have observed that they seldom, if ever, leave a thread to float at random, except when they wish to form a bridge. When a spider drops along a line, for instance, in order to ascertain the strength of her web, or the nature of the place below her, she invariably, when she re-ascends, coils it up into a little ball, and throws it away. Her claws are admirably adapted for this purpose, as well as for walking along the lines, as may be readily seen by a magnifying glass.

Triple-clawed foot of a Spider, magnified.

There are three claws, one of which acts as a thumb, the others being toothed like a comb, for gliding along the lines. This structure, however, unfits it to walk, as flies can do, upon any upright polished surface like glass; although the contrary is erroneously asserted by the Abbé de la Pluche. Before she can do so, she is obliged to construct a ladder of ropes, as Mr. Blackwall remarks,† by elevating her spinneret as high as she can, and laying down a step upon which she stands to form a second;

*Spectacle de la Nature, i. 58. + Linn. Trans. vol. xv.

and so on, as any one may try by placing a spider at the bottom of a very clean wine-glass.

The hairs of the legs, however, are always catching bits of web and particles of dust; but these are not suffered to remain long. Most people may have re marked that the house-fly is ever and anon brushing its feet upon one another to rub off the dust, though we have not seen it remarked in authors that spiders are equally assiduous in keeping themselves clean. They have, besides, a very efficient instrument in their mandibles or jaws, which, like their claws, are furnished with teeth; and a spider which appears to a careless observer as resting idly, in nine cases out of ten will be found slowly combing her legs with her mandibles, beginning as high as possible on the thigh, and passing down to the claws. The flue which she thus combs off is regularly tossed away."

*

With respect to the house-spider (A. domestica), we are told in books, that "she from time to time clears away the dust from her web, and sweeps the whole by giving it a shake with her paw, so nicely proportioning the force of her blow, that she never breaks anything .Ӡ That spiders may be seen shaking their webs in this manner, we readily admit; though it is not, we imagine, to clear them of dust, but to ascertain whether they are sufficiently sound and strong.

We recently witnessed a more laborious process of cleaning a web than merely shaking it. On coming down the Maine by the steem-boat from Frankfort, in August 1829, we observe the geometric-net of a conic-spider (Epeira conica, WALCK.) on the framework of the deck, and as it was covered with flakes of soot from the smoke of the engine, we were surprised to see a spider at work on it; for, in order to * See Insect Transformations, page 358, for a more minute account. † Spectacle de la Nature, i. p. 61.