18 SPIDERS [CH. 



succession. There is little hesitation or delay about 

 the subsequent operations. The spokes of the wheel 

 are readily formed by carrying lines across to opposite 

 points of the frame-work and uniting them where 

 they intersect. They are laid down in no special 

 order, but more or less alternation is generally 

 noticeable apparently for the purpose of keeping 

 the tension equally balanced and the spider will 

 occasionally desist in order to go and brace up the 

 frame-work with additional stays, which generally 

 have the effect of converting it to a polygon. 



Before long the requisite number of fairly equi- 

 distant "spokes' or radii are visible, and then the 

 spider, starting from the centre, rapidly spins a 

 spiral thread consisting of a few coils only, to the 

 circumference, stepping from spoke to spoke. This 

 is only a temporary scaffolding and will not be 

 suffered to remain in the completed snare. If the 

 structure is touched at this stage of the operations 

 it does not adhere to the finger ; the viscid spiral 

 remains to be laid down. Though it does not hesitate 

 for a moment, the spider now works with a peculiar 

 deliberation, but the operation will be much better 

 understood by actual observation than by any amount 

 of description, and we shall only recommend the 

 reader to note that the new spiral is exceedingly 

 elastic and that at the moment of its attachment to 

 a spoke it is stretched and let go like the string of a 



