The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-04-07
SPIDERS.

WnaC 1unny Fellow SPIDER is, with
his smooth round eyes, his eight legs.
not all of the same length, and all on
the fore part of his body his utter alb
sence of neck, and (King Bruce not
withstanding) his apparent lack of
ears! He is not very pretty. neither,
though, like the rest of us, he can not
help that! But he is clever, and as
Agur says, taketh hold with his
hands," and makes the most of his OPP
portunities. When he comes out of the
egg and takes his first look around, he
is as like his mother as a small pea to q
big one. That fine appetite of his soon
Graves attention, and as no nurse makes
her appearance he con rives to shift for
himself Not wise enough yet to spin
q proper web, he shoots ont a long
straight thread, lets it stream in the
wind until the far end is caught and
held fast by some neighboring object,
then fastens the other end, watches for
his breakfast and presently enjoys it.
Breakfast is splendid meal to all who
earn before they eat it.
Spiders soon become expert weavers.
Their webs are usually spun in dry
weather. Coming as size from six tiny
nipples at the end OF the animal. the
material is hardened by the into fine
threads, woven into silky strands; and
then wrought into network by the little
creatures limbs. Ten thousand of
those fine threads do not equal in thick
ness one of or hairs. Yet the spiders
OF Bermuda make ropes forty feet long,
strong enough to catch birds as large as
thrushes; and there are spiders webs
in the forests of Java which must be cut
with a knife before men can pass
through them. The web of an English
house-spider will last for months and
even years, and is of the same texture
throughout. But that of the Diadem.
or garden spider, is composed of
two kinds OF silk. If you look at
one through a microscope you will
see that, while the straight threads
in it are perfectly smooth, the cir
cular threads are covered with minute
drops of glue. These act like lined
twig, holding every trespasser until the
constable comes up to arrest him, and
as the glue dries by exposure the Cir
cular threads are renewed every day.
as well as webs. Have you never,
when pulling down the river in boat,
felt all at once that something like a
fine hair had swept across your faceP
That was a SPIDERS bridge. When
about to construct such bridge he
turns his nipples to the wind, darts out
a thread which is instantly carried over
the water and twisted round some
branch upon the other side, and behold,
natural suspension bridge! Hundreds
of tluttering gnats will pay toll to the
warden OF that bridge, and none OF them
ever lido it again. DIR. Lister says:
II one day, observing the air full Of
webs, forthwith mounted the top of the
highest steeple on the minister lat
York;, and could there discover the
spiders exceedingly high above me-"
You have only to select fine. clear day
in autumn, when there is little or no
wind, and from the top of tower you
too may see the spiders on their airy.
ladders, sailing without wings. But
beware the edge of the tower, for you
can not sail that way! In the bitches of
| Norfolk q certain spider axes itself a
| raft of weeds-Sindbad' tub would be
a giant to it--and, floating on its fragile
skiff, rescues drowning flies, but, like q
WreCher, eIupIicS Ilch ttoocS' Lhelo
are spiders that can walk on water,
others that can run mot swim) in it,
one that makes a diving bell in which
it hunts over the Shiny bottom of green
pools, and one that actually forms dry
house underneath the waves. Some sit
in the center of their web like cat
watching a mouSe-hole. One spins a
tunnel, where it lies in wait until the
shaking of its net announces that sup
per is provided.
stand up for the spider. One who
is wiser than men has instructed it to
seek its prey. With one of its big claws
it inhicts a death-blow, and through a
kind OF pore in the claw drop OF poison
passing into the victims body puts it in
stantly out of pain. wish the slaugh-
ter inflicted by human sportsmen were
always as justifiable and as merciful.
The great bird-catching spiders of
Martinique do not spin webs. They hunt
at night, have eyes which shine like those
of cats and some nocturnal moths, can
see in the dark, and, catching small
birds in the night. suck their blood.
An East India spider excavates a hole