'VARIETY OF CHARACTER IN INSECTS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J
have just read the latest " dog-story " in a letter -addressed to you in the Spectator of January 12th. The following sentence in this letter,—" To prove that the dis- position of animals are as varied as those of human beings," recalls to my mind a fact about insecta which I think would interest some people. No one who has ever kept animals as pets can doubt their varied temperaments, but some insects also manifest a like difference. When I was a child I often amused myself with teasing spiders ; I never hurt them. I would throw a small piece of leaf into a nice newly-made web and watch the result. Some spiders would rush out in a terrible rage and, quite regardless of the beautiful new web, run right across it and thrust out the offending object, doing much damage to the new fly-trap in its course; others of less 'hasty temper and of a more reflective turn of mind would come quietly a short distance, look at the object for a minute, and then quietly retire. Then sometimes a spider would be in the centre of his web, and when he saw me looking at him lie would rush away and hide himself, or he would tremble so as to violently shake his web. These facts are perfectly true, and many were the spiders whom I used to visit. These last I should call highly nervous insects.—I am, Sir, &c., C. J.
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