With regard to this method of swathing prey, Hudson[33] says of an Argentine spider, ‘that its intelligence has supplemented this instinctive procedure with a very curious and unique habit. The Pholcus, in spite of its size, is a weak creature, possessing little venom to dispatch its prey with, so that it makes a long and laborious task of killing a fly. A fly, when caught in a web, is a noisy creature, and it thus happens that when the Daddy longlegs--as Anglo-Argentines have dubbed this species--succeeds in snaring a captive, the shrill outrageous cries of the victim are heard for a long time--often for ten or twelve minutes. This noise greatly excites other spiders in the vicinity, and presently they are seen quitting their webs and hurrying to the scene of conflict. Sometimes the captor is driven off, and then the strongest or most daring spider carries away the fly. But where a large colony are allowed to continue for a long time in undisturbed possession of a ceiling, when one has caught a fly he proceeds rapidly to throw a covering of web over it, then, cutting it away, drops it down and lets it hang suspended by a line at a distance of two or three feet from the ceiling. The other spiders arrive on the scene, and after a short investigation retreat to their own webs, and when the coast is clear our spider proceeds to draw up the captive fly, which is by this time exhausted with its struggles.’ In this connexion Hudson notes that spiders are attracted by the sound of the vibration of a string or wire, thinking it made by an insect that has been caught; and he says that the stories of tame spiders are founded on a misunderstanding of the motive that brings the animal down. We may well doubt if spiders are attracted by music, but that some spiders possess a sense of hearing, or something analogous thereto, seems to be proved by the existence of stridulating organs in certain members of the group. [Illustration: FIG. 52.--Foot of Garden Spider.] [Illustration: FIG. 53.--Spinnerets of Garden Spider.]