Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-09-24
Fly and Spider--Thp Tables Turned,

An CID subscriber in Australia sends
to TIE Ge".,emaAis Nagaz!ne the fol.
lowing: . Australia is the land of con.
trariety in regard to animal and vegeta.
BILE life-such AS black swans, the duck
mole, fish which climb trees, cherries
with the stone outside, ANA veritabie
wooden ears.-but one fac. IT garling
spiders and flies is equally strange, tor
here there is thy which, catches spiders.
He is a why, energetic, hard-looking
customer; body longlsh aud narrow;
color, literally half mourning. and
about three quarters of all inch long;
he builds clay nest for his lary;e.
generally inside locks under ve:andah
caves, or even III cracks Of woodwork.
and sometimes in the folds Of curtains
or clothes. In one case, while STAYING
at q friends house about twenty miles
from Sidney, l left my waterproof Goa.
hanging untouched for about four days,
and on taking it down there was q nest
nearly built in one of the folds, of
about the size Of ones little finger and
three or four inches in length. On re.
placing the coat and leaving it for un-
other few days, and then examining il,
the nest was finished; it had three
compliments, with one little white
grub in each and for its food several
small green spiders, not then absolute.
ly deal |, but apparently in state of
coma. These spiders were evidently
taken out of the orange orchard, as
there were plenty Of the same kind
alive abou. tie trees; bu. last week,
while up in the mountains, watched
one of the flies carrying Of II black
houses spider quite as big rs itself; and
during the course of the day saw him
three separate times, AMI Oh each occR-
sion with large spider. | could not
lind the nest; but the farmer tells me
that he has occasionally done -, and
found as many as twenty good sized
spiders Of various kinds, all apparent
ly dead, but dot decayed, and general
ly five or six laryss OF tie lily.
There is also IA large spider which
actually catches small! bras OCCASION
ally, and kills and &c, ours them! He
is like wasp in color; body, shape and
size Of small haza mt; legs, long
and wiry; and ne ais, looks hard
skinned customer. TA1 web is always
double, one about half as large again
"a tLS OlhNA, 04't Allt.ttC vi olSl SlIOIS,
yellowish fiber, that, if accidentally
walking into it. you feel sensible
stoppago 0! your way for the moment
One b.rl-tha wreck of which | myself
saw left IN the web--was rather smaller
than the English wren, and the web
was strong enough to staal all its
struggles, although little broken here
and there.
As regards size of some spiders we
have lat-bojied. gray-colored one
here which builds no web, but lives
under bark of dead trees, behind boards,
ETC., Tie body Of which is about the
size OF Il shilling and not much thick
er, but the legs of which are quite as
long as the fingers OF an ordinary sized
hand, and the whole spread of the
brute Is about hands breadth. This
i, for the fullest sized ones; but the
COMMON run OF them are live or six
inches across, and the style in which
they pounce upon and double up the
smaller cock reaches is what our
Yankee cousins would call ~ eau.
tom