The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1891-12-04


on one side and some on others, so that
having entered by the outermost open
ing it has to travel as many times from
side to side as there are layers to the
tent before il can reach the tidy little
apartment where its young are kept
safely dry and warm The more cfTec-
tually to conceal the tent from possible
enemies, the outside layer is carefully
discolored with mud, so that Il may re-
semble the color of the surrounding
soil, but the interior is beautifully
clean, soft and white.
Another spider, the maker of water
proof goods, is a corsair, and of
course needs a ship to sail about in;
and, equally of course, considering its
nature. IL prefers to get its ship by
stealing. So, having determined to en-
ter upon its piratical career, it looks
about to find the cast-off shell of a
water snail Having found one of suit
able size it enters and Immediately be-
gins to prepare a door of vanished
silk, which is perfectly waterproof.
Behind this door, effectually protected
from the water, our cunning corsair
lives and floats about, waiting for his
prey. Like all other corsairs, he sails
under false colors 1t is to deceive his
victims until they have no time to make
their escape that he passes himself off
as an innocent water snail All spiders
are said to dislike a wetting nearly or
quite as much as cats are known TO do,
yet there are other spiders, besides the
corsair waterproof silk maker, which
habitually live in or under the water.
All such spiders are, of course, skillful
in the manufacture of the vanished
silk, which enables them to live under
water without injury.
One such spider, called by naturalists
the ArlyrOnetd from two Greek words
signifying silver and spun, lives in stag
nant water, on the surface of which it
swims about with perfect ease, keep
ing its abdomen incIosed in a little
globe of vanished silk, which shines
like silver; and, being filled with air,
acts as 4 life preserver, keeping its
wearer from sinking.
The female of this spider constructs
for itself n sort of diving bell, in which
it can live all winter beneath the water.
This sdiving-bell-an oval-Shaped cocoon
of vanished silk, well flied with air,
is anchored securely by Inultitudes of
strong but very slender silken cables
to the surrounding plants In it its
maker lies in wait for prey, or deposits
and jealously guards her cocoon of eggs,
or shuts herself up during the winter.
Still another spider is a sl<illful pa
per maker. and DIR. Livingston found
many specimens of ii living in central
Africa, where il makes its nests of
small sheets of thin, gray paper, re-
sembling that of which hornet and
wasps build their nests, pasted so close
II TO the walls of the natives huts as
to almost escape oDservaJIou-
The balloon making spider has at
t-acted great admiration from the skill
with which he spins, weaves and in
flates tiny balloon underneath which
it remains in safety, while the breezes
watt 1t away.
Another little air traveller is able to
make long aerial voyages without the
aid of either wings or balloons. 1t is
known as the Gossamer spider. d great
multitudes of them have been fou nd on
ships fully sixty miles from land The
Gossamer Is only about one-tenth of an
inch in length and of duslxy red color.
Upon first com ing in contact with the
rigging of 4 ship it always seems to be
attached to only a single thread, but
in few moments is surrounded by n
mesh of floating web, which appears to
be produced simply by the entangle-
nent of the one long single thread.
When the Gossamer is on land and
wishes to sail off through the air it
rawls upon some little eminence, ele-
atcs its abdomen, sends forth a single
bread and Immediately the slightest
.reath of air bears it away at a line on
level, or nearly so, with the height
rom which it started Mr.. Charles
Darwin, who tells us about this spider,
avs that he thought he could perceive
hat before sending forth the floating
bread the spider connected its legs to-
ether by other delicate threads; but
this he was not quite sure. If this
observation. be correct it may be that
he delicate threads uniting to the
pider's very light body may form
ort of parachute aad aid it in its flight.
Another tiny spider while placed on
he top of post shot forth from its
pinncrs four or five threads, each
about n yard in length. These threads
.littering in the sunshine, looked like
separated and waving rays of light, on
which il scared away as if on wings
Its supply of silk" says Mr.. Darwin,
seemed inexhaustible."
This might probably be said of most
spiders. A very keen and accurate OBJ
server has told me that he once traced
what seemed to be a single continuous
bread of spiders web extending from
n point on the shore of the Hud-
son river near Cold Spring to another
point on the opposite shore near the
West Point landing, at the height of
about yard above the water. My in
formant was in 4 rowboat at about five
o'clock of a very still June morning.
and rowed his boat quietly beside the
thread of web for the whole distance.
This is another fact to prove the i'm
mense productiveness of the little spin
ners in proportion to their own size
Helen Z. Smith, in n. Y. Independent.