door, which it was annoyed to see opened by a stranger, and on the next day a new trap was constructed at a short distance from the former one. Had the creature thought that the new door would be unknown to the person who had disturbed it at the old one? When its last hour was approaching, the California mason crept slowly out from its home, and was afterward picked up dead on the ground at some distance from the spot.
In the world of spiders, as we have seen it under its varying aspects, a fundamental unity of character prevails in essentials, with an attracting diversity in secondary things. While the creatures are highly organized, they are very unequally endowed in fortune, in physical advantages, and in resources to help them in the struggle for existence. Notwithstanding their sagacity, they do not inspire the interest or sympathy that is bestowed upon insects that work in common and form social organizations. In their solitary life they represent individual egotism in its most absolute sense. Yet they are all alike watchful mothers, displaying an unparalleled solicitude for their offspring—a solicitude which we might even call tenderness. While with most other animals the sexual relations promote kindly and social qualities, the relations between male and female spiders are generally very much strained. Yet, as if Nature repelled a rule absolutely without exception, we have witnessed some pleasant instances of union among a few privileged species. The instincts of spiders have revealed themselves in striking forms, while some signs of a higher faculty have also appeared. And does not a being which shows such just appreciation of situations, and can repair damages to its structures in so irreproachable a manner, show evidence of a reasoning faculty? In truth, observation of the acts and faculties of the humblest creatures is not without use in adding to our knowledge of the wonderful phenomena which are the subjects of psychology.—Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes.
