136 WEB OF THE HOUSE SPIDER. 



We have, as yet, said nothing of the toils of the common 

 House-Spider, but so secretly and slily does that " cunning 

 artificer '' ply her craft, that some of the most clever natu- 

 ralists have been puzzled, and are still at fault, as to the precise 

 manner in which she goes to work. One"* has declared that she 

 can "weave the warp, and weave the woof;" but, as observed 

 by another, t if she ever possessed, she has, in these modern 

 days, forgot tliis process in her manufacture. AVhen, in com- 

 mencing her horizontal fabric, she desires to stretch her 

 first line from wall to wall across her chosen corner, it would 

 appear that she walks round the intervening angle, carrying in 

 one of her claws the end of her thread, which has been 

 previously fixed, a mode of proceeding, supposed by Eennie 

 to be requisite on account of the horizontal position of her net, 

 which could not be ensured by allowing its first line to be 

 fixed at hazard, as with those shot out by the weavers of 

 Gossamer. 



Numerous other Spider-wrought fabrics, as varied in shape 

 and texture as in their process of formation, and intended for 

 snares, for habitations, or for egg-nests, are constructed by the 

 hairy-legged spinners of our native island; but perhaps \ve 

 must look for the deacons of their craft amongst those of 

 foreign extraction. None, for instance, of our Araclmean 

 artificers at present known, are able, we believe, to compete 

 with the marvellous skill of the Mason Spider of the tropics 

 * Homberg. f Rennie. 



