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Show Spiders That Catch Birds- W. J. Rainbow, an Australian naturalist, gives a description of the large bird-entrapping spiders of this country. Representatives of this genus abound in tropical and subtropical regions. Their webs are composed of two kinds of silk one yellow, exceedingly ' viscid and elastic; the other white, dry and somewhat brittle. The latter is used for the framework of the web, the guys and radii, and the former for the concentric rings. These snares are at varied heights, sometines within reach, again ten to twelve feet from, the ground, but always in a position exposed to the rays of the sun. The diameter is also variable, from three feet upward. One seen by Graffe in the Fiji islands constructs a web thirty feet in diameters. These snares are strong enough to entrap small birds. In the auth- or's opinion the web is not set for such game, and the spider does not feed on her ornithological victim. In the case "where she has been observed obser-ved with her fangs in the body of the ensnared bird, it is probable that it is for the purpose of hastening hasten-ing the death of the bird in order to prevent its injuring the web in its struggles to escape. Spiders of the genus Nephila are easily tamed. Although exceedingly voracious, vo-racious, they can exist for many days without food or water. San Francisco Chronicle. |
