One more type of adaptation can be profitably considered. Animals have developed many devices which serve for the protection of their young. The wonderful silk spun by the spider was evidently primarily intended to serve as a covering for the eggs. Probably all of our spiders agree in using the silk for this purpose. Many of them employ it for practically no other, though there are half a dozen different uses to which different spiders may put their silk. Under these conditions we have a right to infer that silk was primarily developed as a coating for the eggs. In the case of some of our spiders a little fluffy mass of silk covers the egg, while a firmly woven sheet of silk covers both egg mass and fluff, holding it flat against a wall or the trunk of a tree. In some of the higher spiders, notably our bank spiders, the silken covering becomes an effective cocoon, spherical in shape, with a little opening at the top like the neck of a small bottle. The egg cocoon is woven in a mass of tangled silk between the branches of some tough weed which will be sure to outlast the winter. Into the egg cocoon the spider may place one thousand or more eggs. Having thus provided her children with a snug winter home, the spider dies. When spring comes with the warm rays of the sun, the eggs hatch and the cocoon becomes a creeping mass of minute spiders. At the time these spiders appear there is nothing for them to eat. The obvious way out of this difficulty is taken. At once there begins a progressive party. Spider fights with spider, and the prize in each conflict is the body of the victim, which is promptly eaten. The winners in the first round pair off again, and a little later, as hunger drives them, another set of combats comes on, resulting in another halving of the number of spiders in the cocoon. This process continues until not more than one-tenth of the original number of spiders remains. By this time they have gained sufficient strength of leg and jaw, and sufficient dexterity in the use of both, to make it safe for them to venture out and try their fortunes among the accidents of a strenuous world. There can be little doubt after this long process has worked its final results which tenth remains. Chance plays but small part in this game. It is the fittest that survive. When this procedure goes on generation after generation, the result must necessarily be that the spiders grow fitter and fitter for their work. This method is hard on the little spider, but it makes good spiders.