A WONDERFUL SPIDER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 777, 9 March 1877, Page 4

A WONDERFUL SPIDER.

New Orleans boasts of tlie most wonderful spider that ever spun a web. Her home is in a certain carpenter’s shop which is also the abode of a mouse. The latter was accustomed, when on a predatory excursion, to emerge from a hole under the bench whore the spider dwelt, and pass into the carpenter’s shop, where the bench stands. The enterprising spider, who had no doubt watched for a long time these movements, laid a trap for the unsuspecting young mouse, and one morning, when it started out on its daily rounds, the little spider, who was on the look-out, tightened the threads which she had prepared for her victim, whose hind legs had been entangled in them as it passed out of its hole, and soon secured it. Although themouse hung suspended, a dead weight, the thread never gave way, and the spider continued working mntil her prisoner .was quite secure. Immediately after the legs had been ■caught, the spider fastened another thread to the mouse’s tail, and after several hours’ constant work, succeeded in raising her prey’s hindquarters, and continued so doing until the tip of the mouse’s nose only touched the floor. This unheard-of capture of a mouse 'by so small an insect, and its ingenious manner of elevating it, have excited : tho wonder and admiration of thousands of visitors, among whom may be mentioned several scientific men and physicians.