Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1896-11-19
NUMBER Is
SPIDERS In BATTLE.
THEY CONDUCT THEMSELVES WITH
ALMOST HUMAN INTELLIGENCE.

A Fight TO the Finish Between a Black
Tiger Spider and Pair From the Gray
Hill Tribe-The Bout by Rounds-AM
''Put to Sleep" Though the Black Won.
In the quiet laboratory Of a Ninth
street chemist the other day there was
enacted little tragedy which afforded
demonstrated lesson in the etiquette Of
duelism a. it il conducted among the
spiders. Few realize the intelligence
these inconspicuous little creatures often
display, and in fact few people besides
scientists 90 to the trouble On spending
an hour or SO watching them.
The doctor espied a spider in the cor
ner Of the laboratory window sill. He
procured wide mouthed jar, and with
a stick endeavored to push the spider
into it, The insect turned savageIy on
it and darted quickly up the stick to-
ward his hand. Stick and spider were
dropped Immediately on to the sill.
from which in another instant the crea-
ture was scooped into the jar.
He lay sullen and punched up at the
bottom. His body was fully three-quar-
ters Of an inch long, the thorax mottled
black and green, the abdomen pursy,
round and marked with well defined
stripes Of black and yellow; the legs not
very long, but stout, hairy and ending
in unusually strong, double claws, while
the head was armed with a pair OF
shining black mandibles that looked
like small steel pinchers. One Of the
neighbors said afterward that it was a
tiger spider, and there was no ques-
tion as to the aptness of the name. His
behavior was 50 ugly and fierce that be
made good subject for testing the
pugnacity Of spiders with their kind.
The doctor was familiar with his own
home, and having made the capture be
went mp into bis own garrett, where the
walls and corners were profusely deco
rated with will you walk into my par
Tor" contrivances. He singled out a
typical web and proceeded. The mouth
OF the web was opened out over quite
considerable area and ran back as a
narrow tube, the whole being like the
most delicately woven gray white silk.
Throwing a tempting bait into the web
in the shape Of fly, the doctor had no
difficulty in sweeping two gray spiders
into another jar.
He got deep sided salad bowl and
dumped the gray spiders in They at
once began running around the fiat bot
tom, making wild dashes up the sides
and tumbling over each other in their
excited efforts to escape.
As soon as the tiger spider was shaken
out Of his pickle jar into the bowl the
gray spiders ceased their wild actions
and took up a crouching position at one
side of the bowl bottom. The tiger spi-
der made no effort to escape, but after
one or two rapid reeonnoiters of his sur
roundings squatted just across from
and facing the hill tribers.
The first offensive movements came
from the gray spiders. These were in
the nature of slow advances and retreats
along the circumference line Of the bowl
bottom. with the evident intention Of
taking the tiger spider on the flank AT
each advance, however. the tiger spider
sat up. resting on his four posterior and
middle feet, while the two anterior legs
were stretched out like the arms OF
wrestler, and the strong caliper shaped
jaws were opened to their fullest extent.
Suddenly one of the spiders made q
characteristic but fatal dash. He seemed
actually to leap at the big spider But
quick as the hill spider was the tiger
spider was equally so. As the long drab
spider darted in, the big black and vel
low fellow sprung up and faced him
The next instant they closed, and in a
moment three Of the hill spiders legs
lay on the glass, and the tiger spider,
holding his enemy in bearlike hug,
was burying his mandibles in the 9TH
er's throat
The killing had not been done, how
ever, without receipt Of injury on both
sides. One yellow and black leg lay
with the three drab ones, and there
were two drops Of black juice on the
pursy abdomen Of the tiger spider,
which showed where the gray spider
had planted his jaws in the rush.
Meanwhile, too, the second gray spi-
der had not been idle, but was circling
round and about the struggling pair.
Then, seeing his opportunity, he dashed
in, only to be faced by the burly fight
er, who, to meet the new attack unen-
numbered, threw the body Of the dead
combatant from him with gesture that
was almost human.
The clinch did not follow so quickly
this time. The gray spider succeeded in
getting in and away, clipping OF an
other yellow and black leg az he did 80
but in the second rush he was caught,
and the tiger spiders jaws were locked
in his throat.
So ended the fight
The tiger spider held on to his second
corpse SO long and quietly that thought
him dead also, until stirred him with
my per, when he staggered furiously
against it, opened his jaws and rolled
over, a corpse. Cincinnati Commercial
Tribune