Among our native spiders there are several, which, not contented with a web like the rest of their congeners, take advantage of other materials to construct cells where, “_hushed in grim repose_,” they “expect their insect prey.” The most simple of those spider cells is constructed by a longish-bodied spider (_Aranea holosericea_, LINN.), which is a little larger than the common hunting spider. It rolls up a leaf of the lilac or poplar, precisely in the same manner as is done by the leaf-rolling caterpillars, upon whose cells it sometimes seizes to save itself trouble, having first expelled, or perhaps devoured, the rightful owner. The spider, however, is not satisfied with the tapestry of the caterpillar, _but always weaves a fresh set of her own_, more close and substantial. Another spider, common in woods and copses (_Epeira quadrata?_) weaves together a great number of leaves to form a dwelling for herself, and in front of it she spreads her toils for entrapping the unwary insects which stray thither. These, as soon as caught, are dragged into her den, and stored up for a time of scarcity. Here also her eggs are deposited and hatched in safety. When the cold weather approaches, and the leaves of her edifice wither, she abandons it for the more secure shelter of a hollow tree, where she soon dies; but the continuation of the species depends upon eggs, deposited in the nest before winter, and remaining to be hatched with the warmth of the ensuing summer. The spider’s den of united leaves, however, which has just been described, is not always useless when withered and deserted; for the dormouse usually selects it as a ready-made roof for its nest of dried grass. That those old spiders’ dens are not accidentally chosen by the mouse, appears from the fact, that out of about a dozen mouse-nests of this sort found during winter in a copse between Lewisham and Bromley, Kent (England), every second or third one was furnished with such a roof. THE WATER SPIDER.--We extract the following exquisitely beautiful and interesting fact in nature, _connected with diving operations_, from the Rev. Mr. Kirby’s Bridgewater Treatise:--