would not move, and on the third day it had disappeared.[87] Jesse relates the following anecdote, which seems to display on the part of a spider somewhat remote adaptation of means to novel circumstances. He confined a spider with her eggs under a glass upon a marble mantelpiece. Having surrounded the eggs with web,-- She next proceeded to fix one of her threads to the upper part of the glass which confined her, and carried it to the further end of the piece of grass, and in a short time had succeeded in raising it up and fixing it perpendicularly, working her threads from the sides of the glass to the top and sides of the piece of grass. Her motive in doing this was obvious. She not only rendered the object of her care more secure than it would have been had it remained flat on the marble, but she was probably aware that the cold from the marble would chill her eggs, and prevent their arriving at maturity: she therefore raised them from it in the manner I have described.[88] Mr. Belt gives the following account of the intelligence which certain species of South American spiders display in escaping from the terrible hosts of the Eciton ants:-- Many of the spiders would escape by hanging suspended by a thread of silk from the branches, safe from the foes that swarmed both above and below. I noticed that spiders generally were most intelligent in escaping, and did not, like the cockroaches and other insects, take shelter in the first hiding-place they found, only to be driven out again, or perhaps caught by the advancing army of ants. I have often seen large spiders making off many yards in advance, and apparently determined to put a good distance between themselves and the foe. I once saw one of the false spiders, or harvest-men (_Phalangidæ_), standing in the midst of an army of ants, and with the greatest circumspection and coolness lifting, one after the other, its long legs, which supported its body above their reach. Sometimes as many as five out of its eight legs would be lifted at once, and whenever an ant approached one of those on which it stood, there was always a clear space within reach to put down another, so as to be able to hold up the threatened one out of danger.[89]