“ hold till lier belly was full, and then carried the remainder home.
“ I have beheld them mftructing their young ones, how to hunt,
“ which they would fometimes difcipline for not well obferving;
“ but when any o f the old ones did (as fometimes) miß a leap, they
“ would run out o f the field, and hide themfelves in their crannies,
<c as afham’d, and haply not to be leen abroad for four or five hours
“ after: for fo long have I watched the nature o f this ftrange infedb
“ the contemplation o f whole fo wonderful fagacity and addreß has
“ amaz’d me ; nor do I find in any chafe whatfoever, more cunning
‘c and ftratagem obferv’d. I have found fome o f thefe Spiders in my
“ garden, when the weather ( towards the fpring) is very hot, but
“ they are nothing fo eager of hunting as they are in Italy ’V
A l l kind's o f Spiders feem to be creatures o f prey, and to feed on
other fmall infefts, but their ways o f catching them are very differing-:
the fhepherd Spider by running on his prey 5 the jumping Spider by
leaping on it, other forts weave nets, or cobwebs, whereby they enfhare
them , nature having both fitted them with materials and tools, and
taught them how to work and weave their nets, and lie perdue, and
to watch diligently to run on a fly as foon as ever entangled.
T h e i r thread or web feems to be fpunout o f fome vifcous kind
o f excrement, lying in their belly, which, though foft when drawn
out, is prefently, by reafonof its fmafoefs, hardned and dried by the
ambient air. Examining feveral o f which with my microfeope, I
found them to appear much like white horfe-hair, or fome foch tranfe
parent horny fubftance, and to be o f very differing magnitudes; fome
appearing as big as a pig’s brittle, others equal to a horfe-hair; others
no bigger than a man’s hair, others yet fmaller, and finer. I obferv’d
further,
further, that the radiating chords o f the web were much bigger, and
fmoother than thofe that were woven round, which feem’d fmaller,
and all over knotted or pearl’d, with fmall tranfparent globules, not
unlike fmall cryftal beads, or feed pearls, thin ftrung on a clew o f
f ilk ; which, whether they were fo fpun by the Spider, or by the adventitious
moifture o f a fog (which I have obferv’d to cover all thefe
filaments with foch cryftalline beads) I will not difoute.
T H ES E threads were fome o f them fo fmall, that I could very
plainly, with the microfeope, difeover the fame confecutions o f colour as
in a prifm, and they feem’d to proceed from the fame caufe with thofe
colours which I have already deferib’d in thin plated bodies.
M u c h refembling a cobweb, or a confus’d lock o f thefe cylinders
is a certain white fobftance which, after a fog, may be obferv’d to fly
up and down the a ir ; catching feveral of thofe, and examining them
with my microfeope, I found them to be much o f the fame form, looking
moft like to a flake o f worfted produc’d to be fpun, though by what
means they fhould be generated, or produc’d, is not eafily imagined :
they were o f the fame weight, or very little heavier than the a ir ; and
’tis not unlikely, but that thofe great white clouds, that appear all the
fommer time, may be o f the fame fubftance.