SPIDER AND THE MOUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20958, 22 August 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

SPIDER AND THE MOUSE.

CLEVER WORK WITH WEBS. FEAT OF ENGINEERING. [TALE OF. KING BRUCE OUTDONE. One of the strangest stories ever heard, t'old by the Children's Newspaper, comes from a natural history ■ professor in 'America. It happened in a family dining room where people were sitting quietly reading and sewing. The famous story op " King Bruce and the Spider, is quite eclipsed. ' A tiny, unfamiliar noise made itself heard in the silence, 'and one of the family, creeping about, found that it came from under the sideboard. Somebody said it was just a mouse, Wit one young man was rather interested in the unusual nature of the sound, and lay flat on the floor to investigate. There was a space of about eight inches between the bottom of the sideboard and the floor. The watcher was able presently to discover the extraordinary source of the tiny noise. It was made by a mouse that had been captured by a spider. The spider, not much bigger than a black ant, hnd spun with great rapidity a number of lines round the mouse, and mouse, terrified beyond measure, could find no way of freeing itself. As fast as it broke one foot away the others #ere freshly imprisoned. Now, with its victim webbed rqund and round, the spider was trying to haul the mouse up to its fortress or: the sideboard ledge.

Eight inches is a good height for a spider to drag a beetle, or any heavy insect. It seemed to the watcher that for a spider to get a mouse up to its ledge was a feat of engineering heroic to attempt, but utterly hopeless. /For three hours'the indomitable spider worked at the task, with pulleys and cords and a crane of its own contriving, no doubt. Fraction by fraction the terrified mouse left ; behind the safety of the ground, hanging suspended by a thousand threads. Ceaselessly the mouse wriggled and kicked, trying to break its bonds, but at the end of the three hours it was t>n the ledge, captive, close to the enemy s fortress.

'ihen 'the spiuer presumably sat down to mop its brow and have a rest, and the young man who ,had lain on his waistcoat watching the amazing operation decided that it would be interesting to explore the fortress. Like all good-minded people he nad pity on vanquished. Tbo young man swept his fingers round fcfca'shivering little mouse and freed it. It scuttled away, watched, no doubt, by an enraged spider. A probing finger then explored the crevice and found another little mouse, dead as a stone, and as carefully swathed in spider's web as if it had been a mummy.