eggs come little spiders. They grow to be big ones. The spider changes
its size, it grows. It molts its skin.
[Illustration: A CHAIN OF EVENTS.]
The body of the insect is hard, and is made in rings. It cannot pull
its coat off to get bigger, as a crab can.
The spider’s body is soft. Its skin is tough; it changes its skin often
when it is very young.
The spider has eight legs instead of six, and most spiders have eight
eyes. The spider’s body is in two parts. The poison is not in a sting
in the tail. It is in the base of the two jaws.
The spiders are somewhat like crabs; somewhat like other insects, as
the daddy-long-legs. The real daddy-long-legs is a fly with long legs.
A spider that has just such legs is also called a daddy-long-legs.
The front part of the spider’s body is not so large as the hind part.
The front part has all the eight legs and the head.
The spider has no wings, but he has two small front legs, or hands,
with five joints. He uses them to feel with, and to take his food.
You will see on the head of the spider two short fangs. They are its
jaws. They have the poison in them. They are used to bite.
The claws on the eight feet of a spider are very much like a lion’s
claw. The claws have a brush of hairs on them.
The spider can walk up a wall. The brush on his feet will not let him
drop off. He uses his legs to jump and to walk, and to guide his thread
when he spins.
Spiders spin webs. The hind part of the spider is large and round. It
has six small, round tubes. Each of these tubes is made of many very
small tubes. What are they for? They are to spin this web. What is the
web?
In the tube is a kind of glue. When it is drawn out into the air, it
gets hard. It is then a fine silk, and as it comes out it is woven
into a net which we call a web. All spiders spin webs.
Spiders are of all colors. Their dress is like velvet. It is black,
brown, red, and gold. It is in stripes and spots. The spider is like a
king in his rich dress.
The eight eyes of the spider cannot move. They are set so that they can
see every way at once.
While the spider is growing, he pulls off his dress as Mr. Crab does.
The crab’s bones are his coat. The spider has no bones, but his skin is
hard and tough, and before the baby spiders are two months old, they
shed their coats three or four times.
We say they molt when they do this. They spin a bit of line to take
firm hold of. Then the skin on the front part of the body first cracks
open; then after this the skin on the hind part falls off; and by hard
kicks they get their legs free.
The new skin is fine and soft but soon grows firm and tough.
LESSON XXVIII.
THE SPIDER AT HOME.
The spider, like the wasp, is busy all the time. It is not cross like a
wasp. The bite of a spider does not do a man or a child much harm. A
spider does not bite unless it is hurt, or when it kills its food. The
bite is to kill flies, bees, wasps, ants, and such things, to eat.
[Illustration: IN HIS KINGDOM.]
Spiders make webs, nets, and snares. They can spin, weave, dig, hunt.
Some can build rafts, and others make mud houses.
Their webs are to live or lie in.
The nests are for baby spiders. The snares are to catch food. The silk
of the web is very fine, but it is very strong. It will hold up a big,
fat spider.
It will hold fast a wasp or a bee. Do you see the spider on his thread?
It is his swing. He can swing as the boy does in his rope swing.
Do you see the spider lie at rest in his web? Do you see the child rest
in a web made of string?
How does the spider make his web?
First he finds a good place. He presses the end of the tube he spins
with, and makes a drop of glue fast to a wall, or leaf, or stem. Then
he drops away; and as he goes, the glue spins out in many fine streams,
which unite into one, and turn to silk-like thread. If he does not find
a good place to make his web fast, he can climb back!
How can he climb back? He runs up his line as fast as he came down.
If you scare him, he drops down on his line like a flash. It will not
break.
If you break it, he winds up the end quickly. Then he runs off to find
a new place to which to make it fast.
The long lines in the web are called rays. The spider spins the rays
first. The rays are spread out like the spokes of a wheel.
Webs are of many shapes. You often see the round web.
The spider guides the lines with his feet as he spins. He pulls each
one to see if it is firm.
Then he spins a thread, round and round, from ray to ray, until the web
is done.
LESSON XXIX.
THE LITTLE NEST.
The web of the spider is made of two kinds of silk. The silk of the
rays is smooth. The silk that goes across the rays has tiny drops of
glue on it. This makes the line stick to the rays.
Mrs. Spider begins her lines at the outer edge. They are laid nearer to
each other as she gets to the centre of the web. When all is done, she
is in the centre, and does not need to walk on her new web. She has a
nest near her web.
From the nest runs a line. Mrs. Spider can sit in the door of her nest,
and hold the line in her claw. When a bug or fly goes on the web, the
web shakes. She feels her line move. She runs down the line and gets
the fly or bug, and takes it to her nest to eat.
Before she takes the prey to her nest, she kills or stuns it. Then she
winds some fine web about it. She makes a neat bundle of it, and then
carries it off.
You can make Mrs. Spider run down her line if you shake the web a very
little with a bit of grass or stick. She will run out to see if she
has caught a bee or a fly.
[Illustration: TRAPS AND SNARES.]
The nest of the spider is made of close, fine silk. It is like soft,
nice cloth.
In shape it is like a ball, or a horn, or a basket. Each kind of spider
makes its web in the shape it likes best. In the nest the spider lays
her eggs in a silk ball. The eggs, at first, are very soft. After a
time they grow harder.
More than two spiders never live in a nest. Often a spider lives all
alone. Spiders are often apt to bite off each other’s legs. A spider
can live and run when half its legs are gone. But it can get a fine new
leg as a crab can.
When the baby spiders come out of the egg, they must be fed. The mother
takes good care of them.
They grow fast. When they are grown, they go off and make their own
webs. Sometimes the eggs are left in the silk ball all winter. The baby
spiders come out in the spring.
Then the old ones are dead. But the young ones know how to hunt and to
spin. The very young spiders do not have so rich a dress as the old
ones. The hairs of their coat are not so thick at first.
The soft, silk-like coat, with its rich color, is the only beauty a
spider has. People do not like his long legs and his round, soft,
bag-like body. Still, some people who watch spiders learn to like them
very well.
LESSON XXX.
THE SPIDER AND HIS FOOD.
Some people say that they hate spiders. Why do they hate them? “Oh,”
they say, “they are so very greedy!” Well, a spider must eat a great
deal, or he cannot spin his web.
His food makes the glue that makes the web. Spiders work hard. So they
must eat much.
“But they bite.” They will not bite you if you do not hurt them. If
they do, the bite will do you no harm. They bite insects to kill them.
[Illustration: HIS DIVING-BELL.]
Do you not eat fish, meat, and birds? Who kills this food for you?
“But the spider is not pretty.” True, his shape is not pretty, nor are
his long hairy legs pretty. Just see his fine black or gold coat!
If he is not pretty, he is wise and busy. Webs are very pretty, if
spiders are not.
Spiders eat flies and all kinds of small bugs. When a fly is fast in a
web, he hums loud from fear.
The spider will eat dead birds. One kind of spider kills small birds to
eat.
There is a spider that lives on water. He knows how to build a raft.
He takes grass and bits of stick and ties them up with his silk. On
this raft he sails out to catch flies and bugs that skim over the water.
There is a spider that lives in the water. She can dive. Her nest is
like a ball. It shines like silver. Her web is so thick that it does
not get wet. Her velvet coat keeps her as dry as a fur coat. Her eggs
are of the color of gold.
When spiders eat, they do not chew their food: they suck out the juice.
Spiders are very neat. They hate dust and soot.
They will not have a dirty web. If you put a bit of dirt or leaf on the
web, Mrs. Spider will go and clean it off.
She shakes her web with her foot until all the lines are clean. If the
dirt will not shake from the web, the spider will cut the piece out,
and mend the web with new lines.
LESSON XXXI.
VERY QUEER SPIDERS.
I have told you of the spider that dives. I also told you of the spider
that makes a raft. The one that makes the round web is the garden
spider.
There is a spider that runs on water. How can she do that? Have you
seen boys dash about on ice with skates on their feet? Did you ever see
a man walk on snow-shoes? This spider wears shoes.
They are shoes made for walking on the water. What are they like? They
are like bags of air. It is as if she had a wee toy-balloon on each of
her eight feet. She cannot sink.
There is one spider called a trap-door spider. She lives in the ground.
She digs a tube down, and makes her nest deep in the earth.
Then she makes a door. It is a nice door at the top of the hole. It has
a hinge. It will open and shut.
It is like the lid of a box. How does she make this? She spins a thick,
round web. She fills it with earth.
Then she folds the web over, to hold the dirt in. She makes a hinge of
web. This trap-door will open and shut. It is firm and strong.
But the odd thing is, that the spider plants moss or small ferns on
this door! She digs the moss up, sets it on her door, and it grows
well. These trap-door spiders eat ants and worms. When they come out of
their holes, they leave the door wide open so that they can go back.
Once a man put a lady-bird at a spider’s trap-door. She took it in to
eat. She found it had too hard a shell to bite. So she took it back and
laid it out by her door.
Then the man put a soft grub by the door, and the spider took that to
eat. She did not bring that back. She ate it.
Spiders now and then eat other spiders, but not always.
One kind of spider makes a tent of leaves. She ties the leaves down
with silk. She lives in the tent and keeps her eggs there.
One garden spider makes a nest in the shape of a pear. One ties a
little ball to stems of grass.
The young spiders have not their thick coats at first. Small spiders
will stay by their mother and sit on her back. They act like the small
chicks with the hen. Most spiders live only one year. Some live two.
Some live over four.
There are some mason spiders. When a man is a mason, what does he do?
In what does he work? There are mason wasps, and mason bees, and mason
worms. Mason spiders make a nest of clay.
They take the clay in small bits and build a clay mug. It is six inches
long. They line it with thick silk. The door is like a box lid. It has
a hinge.
Some spiders are so small you can hardly see them. One of the very wee
ones is clear, bright red. Some are very big.
The big ones are black, with spots and stripes, and have thick coats
like fur. If you could find a tower spider, or a trap-door spider, and
sit down to watch it build or catch its food, I think you would be
happy for a whole day, or for many days. The tower spider builds over
her hole a neat tower two or three inches high; she sits on her tower.
She has as many as fifty baby spiders at once. They sit on her back
for four or five weeks, until they molt two or three times. They do
not fight with each other. When Mrs. Spider gets a fly or bug for the
little ones to eat, she crushes it, and the baby spiders come and suck
the juice, as she holds the food for them.
LESSON XXXII.
REVIEW.
What is an insect?
Name some kinds of insects.
Can you tell me how an insect’s body is made?
How many legs, wings, and eyes do insects have?
What three kinds of bees live in each hive?
Tell me what the queen bee does.
What does a drone bee do, and how does he look?
Which bee makes cells?
How do bees get honey and wax?
Tell me how nurse bees take care of bee babies.
How can nurse bees make a new queen bee?
Why do the queen bees fight?
Tell me about the fight of the queen bees.
Why does a swarm of bees leave the hive?
What do bees eat?
What do they make?
Tell me of odd places where bees live.
What things eat the bees and steal their combs?
How must you take care of bees, if you have them?
What colors do bees like best?
Tell me about ground bees.
Tell me about mason bees.
Do all bees make combs with cells that have six sides?
Is a spider an insect?
In what is he not like other insects?
What can a spider make?
How does the spider spin a web?
Tell me about the spider’s eyes.
How does a spider tend its young ones?
Tell me about the water spiders.
What can you tell about other queer spiders?
What does a spider eat?
What good things can you say for the spider?
LESSON XXXIII.
OUT OF HARM’S WAY.
By this time I am sure you think that all the small bugs, flies,
spiders, and crabs must soon be dead.
You have found how cold kills them. You have heard how they kill each
other. You know that men and birds and beasts kill them.
How can any live? What is there to save the poor things?
The two chief things that save them are their shape and their color.
Why, how is that?
Let us see how this is done.
On the sand by the sea the crab that lives mostly out in the air is of
a gray color. It has fine red spots like sand. The shell of this crab
looks so like sand that, if he lies flat and still, you can scarcely
see him.
The crab that lives on the sea-side mud is black-green like the mud.
Birds cannot see him very well, he is so like the mud that he lies on.
The spiders that live in the woods are of much the color of a dead
leaf.
Some of them, as they lie in their webs, fold up their legs and look
like a dead leaf. One spider puts a row of dead leaves and moss all
along her web. She lies on this row, and looks like part of it. Birds
cannot see her, as she lies in this way.
One small bee that lives in trees is green, like a new leaf. The bees,
in brown, black, and gold, look like parts of the flowers on which they
alight.
Birds and beasts that live in snow lands, are often white, as the polar
bear and the eider duck.
Snakes that live on trees, or on the ground, are often brown or green.
They look like the limbs of trees.
Little lizards in walls are gray like stone. In woods, they often are
the color of a dead twig. These things can fold up, or stretch out, and
look like twigs, or leaves, or balls of grass or hay.
All this will keep them from being seen by animals that would kill them.
Some of them you know have hard shells to shield them. Did I not once
tell you how fast they move? They dart and run and jump, quick as a
flash of light. That helps them to get out of the way.
Did I not tell you, also, how the crab has his eyes set on pegs? He can
turn them every way to see what is near him.
The insect and the spider do not have their eyes on long pegs. Some
kinds have six or eight eyes. These eyes are set in a bunch, and some
face one way, some another. They can see all ways at once.
Then, too, so many small live things grow each year, that they cannot
all be put out of the way.
Each crab will lay more eggs then fifty hens. One spider has more baby
spiders than you can count. One bee has more new bees in the hive each
year than there are people in a large city. In a wasp’s big nest there
are, no doubt, as many wasps as there are leaves on a great tree.
Of the creatures which it is most easy to kill, very many are made. And
so, while many of them perish each day, many are left to live.
LESSON XXXIV.
SHELL-FISH.
Have you not all heard the song, “Rock-a-by Baby upon the Tree-top”?
What babies live in tree-tops? You will say, “Bird, wasp, bee, and
spider babies swing in the trees.”
Do you not know that there are small cradles that rock all day long on
the waves?
Up and down, in the sun, on the water, rock the cradles of many
shell-fish.
What are shell-fish?
They are soft animals that live in hard shells.
But you must know that these are not true fish. A true fish is an
animal that lives in the water, and has a back-bone. The back-bone of a
fish is very much like your back-bone.
All fish can swim. Most of them have fins and scales. Very many of them
have long, slim, smooth bodies, that will glide easily through the
water.
All of you can see fish, in the ponds, lakes, or brooks near your home.
You often have them to eat on your table.
If you live in the city, you can go to the place where they sell fish
and look at them.
In some other book I may tell you a little about the true fishes.
In this book I shall now tell you a very little about what are called
“shell-fish.”
This is not a very good name for them, but we will use it, because you
will hear it from many people, and will often see it used in books.
The right name for these shell-fish is a hard word, which means “soft
body” or “soft thing.” That suits them very well, for they are all soft
bodies, they have no bones.
There are in the water soft-bodied things that have no shells to cover
them. In the next book we will tell you of some of them.
These soft things that live in shells are mostly of a round or a wedge
shape. Their shells serve them for houses to live in, for ships to sail
in, for coats to cover them, for bones to keep their soft bodies in
shape.
The shells of these soft things are of many forms.
Some are all in one piece, like a twist or curl. Some have two parts,
like the covers of a book. These two parts are held by a hinge. And
some shells are made in many pieces or scales.
There are three kinds, or orders, of shell-fish. One kind has a head on
its foot. Another has a head much like that of the snail. Still another
kind, or order, has no head at all!
Well! That is a queer thing, to have no head!
Let us learn first about the shell-fish with a head and a foot.
There are many kinds of shell-fish of this order. They differ in size,
color, shape, and way of life. But if we learn about one, we shall have
an idea of all.
You know that the hermit crab steals a shell to live in. It is often a
long shell, like a curl. That is the sort of shell that shell-fish with
heads live in. It is a shell all in one piece.
These shells are very hard and thick. Why is that? The fish in them is
soft. It has no bones.
If these soft things had no hard shells, they could not live. The waves
would kill them. The crabs, fish, and other animals in the sea, would
eat them at once.
Let us see how a shell-fish is made. The conch, or winkle, is the
largest shell-fish you will be likely to find. His body is soft but
tough. It runs to a point.
[Illustration: HEADS AND NO HEADS.]
That back part takes fast hold of the post in the shell, so that Mr.
Conch will not drop out. On one side of his body he has a hook like a
thumb. That is to pull him back into his shell when he wishes to hide.
The front end of the conch is wide and thick. Here we find his mouth.
Near his mouth he has two feelers, such as insects have, to touch
things.
Where the feelers join his head he has two eyes.
His foot is flat, and is as big as all the rest of his body. It is just
the size of the open part of his shell. Why is that?
The shoe on his foot is hard, like horn. When he draws back into his
shell, that shoe is his door. It fits close. It shuts him in safe in
his shell.
LESSON XXXV.
THE STORY OF MR. CONCH.
The conch or winkle does not like to live in sand, or on hard rock. He
likes deep water, where he has some sand and some rock. When the wind
blows, and the sea is very rough, he digs his stout foot into the sand
near a stone, and holds fast. Then he will not drift on shore.
If he is cast on the shore, he will die. Mr. Conch cannot live out of
water.
Mrs. Conch likes some soft sand for a bed for her babes in their queer
cradles.
What does Mr. Conch eat?
He eats other shell-fish. He likes to eat oysters. How does he get
them?
He goes off to the oyster beds.
He likes the nice young oysters. He picks one up with his foot. You see
he uses his foot for a hand as well as for a door. He can spread his
foot out very wide. It is very, very strong.
When he has the oyster in his grip, he draws his foot close, as you
would shut your hand tight. That breaks up the shell of the oyster.
Then Mr. Conch sucks up the oyster at his ease.
[Illustration: CAST AWAY ON AN ISLAND.]
The men who own oyster beds do not like him, for he eats many oysters.
Mr. Conch lives a great many years. No one can hurt him in his hard
house, and he has all he wants to eat.
His shell is the shape of a large pear. It has a little point at the
top, and a long end like a stem. The stem end has a groove in it. His
shell has a turn or twist in it, three or four times round. It is of a
sand-color, or pale yellow, outside.
Some shells have dark stripes. Inside, the shell is very smooth, and
shines, and is of a fine, bright red, or pink, or yellow. It is a very
pretty shell.
How does the conch grow? The conch grows from an egg. Most fish lay
eggs. The eggs of the conch are in a string. They are left lying on the
sand to grow.
What is the conch good for? In some places people like them to eat.
Fish and crabs eat the conchs’ eggs and the young conchs. The shells
are made into buttons and breast-pins.
The Indians used to make money from the pink part of these shells. They
also used the purple part of the round clam shell for money.
LESSON XXXVI.
SEA-BABIES.
Now we must learn more about that string of eggs that Mrs. Conch left
on the sand. First it was like a thread with knots tied close together
on it. Then it grew to be a yard long. It grew very fast.
The knots grew into little cases, or pockets. They were set close to
each other. At the two ends of the string the cases were small, but
after three or four small ones, the others were of the size and shape
of big Lima beans.
Once I was out on the sand with a boy.
We found a string of this kind. It had been cast up by the waves. It
was of a pale straw-color, and like a long curl.
The boy said, “It is a sea-weed.”
I said, “No.” Then he said, “It is some kind of a bean or seed.” I
said, “It is fish seed.” Let us look at it.
[Illustration: OUT IN THE COLD.]
Each case, or pocket, is flat, and has a rim. The rim has lines in it.
In the front edge is a small, round spot, where the case is very thin.
This is the door of the case.
The sides of the case are very tough. Let us cut one case open. It is
full of white gum, or jelly.
I see in it specks like grains of sand. Here is one more string, far up
on the sand. This one is dry, hard, and light. The little thin places
are real holes now.
The cases are quite empty. Here is one more string. This, too, is light
and dry. But the holes in front are not open.
Shake it. Does it rattle? Yes. Cut a case open.
Why! Each case is full of wee shells! Each shell is as small as a grain
of rice! See how thin and white these shells are.
LESSON XXXVII.
MORE ABOUT SEA-BABIES.
Now in these strings you have the whole story. First, the tiny string
Mrs. Conch left on the sand grew to be a big string with large cases
like these. The small specks in it were to become shells, and the jelly
was to be the food of the baby conchs while in the case. There are very
many in each case.
They grew and grew. They ate up all the jelly. They were true
shell-fish, only very small. Then it was time for them to go out.
They saw the thin skin over the small, round hole. They felt sure that
this was their door. They ate off the thin skin, and went into the sea.
The conch lays its egg-strings from March to May.
It lays a great many. In the egg-case the baby shells rock up and down,
not on a tree, but on the sea.
This dry string, still full of shells, is one in which the shells are
all dead. It was cast on shore when the little fish were too young to
come out. That made them all die.
These little things have a hard time to grow up. But if they can live
until they are of a good size, they will have a thick shell. Then they
will be out of harm’s way, and will live a long time.
But how do these shell-fish grow? Do they pull off their shells when
they are too tight, as crabs do?
No. All these shell-fish wear a cloak, or veil. It is by their cloak
they grow. Why, how is that? This cloak, or veil, is fine and thin. It
is part of the body of the fish, and folds all over it.
This fine cloak takes lime out of sea-water, and with it builds more
shell. As the animal needs more room, it spreads out this veil over the
edge of the shell, and builds with it new shell. You can see the little
rims where the cloak built each new piece. The color and the waved
lines on the shell are made by this veil.
So the shell-fish need not change his house. He just builds on more
room as he wants it.
LESSON XXXVIII.
ABOUT MR. DRILL.
Here is a small shell-fish. He looks like Mr. Conch, but is not so
large. He is quite small. His real size in the sea is not much larger
than he is in this picture. His name is Mr. Drill.
[Illustration: THE LITTLE ROBBER.]