Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 1.djvu/694

678 its prey, and, when stretched out, while the creature is watching or moving, they cause the weight of the body to be distributed over a large surface of the fragile web. All this preparation for war is not thrown away, as spiders are plucky and desperate fighters. Although consummate strategists, and availing themselves to the utmost of cunning snares, they are ever ready for an attack, and fight ferociously. Their muscular force is very great, and some of them are so tenacious

that it is difficult to make them let go their hold of the enemy that has been seized. Of the great crab-spider it is said that the obstinacy and bitterness which it exhibits in combat cease only with its life. Some of them have been seen, which, though pierced twenty times through and through, still continued to assail their adversaries without showing the least desire of escaping them by flight.

But let us proceed with the animal's structure. The long, many-jointed legs are terminated with a beautiful apparatus resembling a

comb, with a pointed hook at the extremity. These instruments are not only of service in its encounters with enemies, but they are skilfully constructed to grasp, card, disentangle, or wind its threads with the utmost facility. Nothing comparable to it for this purpose can be found among all the contrivances of our factories. Again, glancing at Fig. 5, we notice, on either side of the head, what might be mistaken for a fifth pair of shorter legs: these are the maxillary palpi, which probably correspond partially to the feelers or antennas of insects. They differ in the male and female, and the club-shaped palpi are said