The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

SILKEN MATERIAL OF THE SPIDER. 165
disturb the unconcerned murderer, who lay \vaithig for his prey-
above
.
" Whether the owner of the web found it a more easy task
to capture this unlucky worm and raise it, than to elevate a
stone of the same weight, may be a question(?). Perhaps in
seeking for the latter, the former fell in his way, and was seized
as the fiist suitable object that came to hand—Uke the human
tyrant, (Domitian) who, to show his skill in archery, planted
his arrows in the heads of men or cattle, in the absence of other
targets. It may be, however, that a piece of stone, earth, or
wood, of a suitable weight, was not in the vicmity of the web.
" To observe the ell'ect of this weight, I separated, with a
pair of scissors, the thread by which it was suspended, and in-
stantly the web sunk to half its previous dimensions—the lower
part became loose, and with the slightest current kept shaking
Uke a sail shivermg in the wind. A fresh weight was not sup-
plied by the next morning ; but instead of it two long brace
lines extended from the lower part of the web to two vine tendrils,
a considerable distance off. These I cut away to see what
device would be next adopted, but on going to examine it the
following day, I found the clothes line removed, and with it ail
relics of the insect's labors had disappeared."
Mason-Spiders.—A no less wonderful structure is com-
posed by a sort of spiders, natives of the tropics and the south
of Europe, which have been justly called mason-spiders by M.
Latreille. One of these {Mijgale nidulaiis, Walckn.), found
in the West Indies, " digs a hole in the earth obli([uely down-
wards, about three inches in length, and one in diameter.
This cavity she lines with a tough thick w^eb, which, when
taken out, resembles a leathern purse ; but what is most curi-
ous, this house has a door with hinges, Uke the operculum of
some sea-shells, and herself and famUy, who tenant this nest,
open and shut the door whenever they pass and repass. This
history was told me," says Darwin, " and the nest, with its door,
shown me by the late Dr. Butt, of Bath, who was some years
physician in Jamaica*."
* Danvin's Zoonomia, i. 253, 8vo. ed.