The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-04-18

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taken by the current Of air and f1oated
off until it catches where it is desired.
Then she pulls in the slack, so as 20
make the thread taut, and, spinning her
entire 800 or 400 threads together, she
attaches their extremities to the twig
where she has been sitting, gives them
all a twist so as to make them Unto a
rope, and starts with the rope to walk
across the thread originally cast, spin
ming the rope as she goes, until she
fastens its other extremity upon the
branch twelve feet away. And thus she
has established her first rope that is the
beginning of her web"
'But suppose there is no wind?
''Then the problem is more complicat-
ed: but she knows how to solve it. She
drops herself by thread from the first
twig to the ground, and then runs across
to the distant tree on seven legs, hold
ing up one leg to carry the thread: she
climbs up the other tree, and when she
has reached the spot contemplated she
fastens the thread, and. pulling in the
slack claw over claw, fetches it taut.
She then eats the slack before going on
with her labors, for the spider is thor
ough economist Having drawn her first
line between two points, she casts an
other one parallel with it two feet, say,
below. Then. running around to the
middle point of the upper bridge, she
drops a thread to the lower horizontal,
connecting the two by perpendicular.
Nextshe drops two other perpendiculars,
one on either side of the original one,
and from the middle point of the first
perpendicular she draws radii in every
direction until there are enough of them
to run all around upon. Now, begin
ming at a point on the outside of this
framework, she spins spiral toward
the center, and having reached the
center, she runs another spiral outward
to the edge of the frame, destroying the
former spiral, which is not made of
sticky web, not being designed to
be permanent for fly catching
sometimes Mistress Spider does not APP
prove of her work and tears it all apart,
to begin anew. One way in which the
weaver manifests her intelligence is by
the judicious choice she makes of places
for her web
A spot she is apt to select is warm
wall or the sunny side of house, where
the flies like to settle. Or she will spin
her snare before bunch of bright flow
ers, which insects are apt to seek for
their sweets, or she will place it in an
opening like broken window or among
densely fOliated bushes, where there is
draft to carry the victims into the
trap. Sometimes spider will spin
four hundred threads of some length
in bunch, break them all off together
and let them fly with the wind in all
directions. One or two of the lot will
catch across between available points
and give the desired start for the bridge.
Then she fastenS the eXtremitieS of the
accidental bridge with new sticky
threads-the other ones were dry-and
proceeds to business. With the sixteen
combs that she has to hold the threads
separate. and a finger claw on each foot
besides, wherewith to fasten the threads,
she can perform her weaving operation
with exceptional dexterity. The Sec
ond horizontal bridge beneath is ordi-
narily made by going to a point short
distance below the upper bridge on one
side, fastening the thread on a con-
venient projecting twig, climbing from
there to the. upper bridge, running
across it, then down the opposite side to
to the proper place, and finally hauling
in the slack"
"DO all Spide rs spin webs?"
mo, some spiders are called vaga-
bond spiders for the reason that thew
do not spin webs The most interesting
sort of vagabond spider is the so-called
trap-dOor spider, which makes a box,
often as big as your two fists, of earth
cemented into large mass by the
spiders own excretion. The box has
little trap-dOOr AT one end with a
strong elastic thread to serve as a
spring. The nest looks like nothing
but clOd of dirt, and the door springs
to SO perfectly-even in the case of
those that have been kept for years as
curios-that you can not see any trace
of an opening. Another vagabond
spider lives in hole in the ground
foot deep with a little nest on top of the
hole made of small sticks and grass.
There is very curious weaving spider
| called the 'gossamer or flying spider
On warm fall day you will often find
the air afiOat with spiders webbs, and
1t you examine rthem you will find
dozens of little spiders in the webs.
These gossamer spiders in pleasant
! autumn weather attach thread to the
ground and permit the breeze to blow
them way off into the air, where they
remain suspended, at anchor, for DAYS at
time, often miles and miles from spot
to which they are anchored"
''Have spiders any enemies?'
PLENTY of them. Their worst foes
are wasps. A certain family of wasps-
the sort that makes mud cells under the
caves of houses-always fills it's cells
fulI OF spldes. The wasp of this variety
catches spider often much heavier and
bigger than itself, and first stings it
into insensibility. The spider thus
stung is rendered senseless but not
dead; 1T is put into state of coma
winch lasts for long time, so that at
the end of from one to three DAYS the
spider is still asleep, as it were, though
hvlng. After thus rendering the spider
helpless the wasp lays an egg on it's
oooy; the egg matches out and the
young larva feeds. on the body of the
spider until it is ready togo out and see
the world. This is natures way of re-
producing that kind of wasp. In South
America monkeys eat spiders, and here
some mice do so also, as well as snakes
turtles and birds
mere are very few collections of
spiders in this country; the one at the
n. National Museum is as yet an embryo.
mere are probably 5000 varieties of
SnldarS in