102 AMERICAN SPIDERS AND THEIR SPINNINGWORK. 



and was doubtless a female. " September 7th. — The web is of the ordinary- 

 form, consisting of irregular concentric polygons, suspended from a strong 

 breastwork of thick thread which forms the base of a triangle, tlie other two 

 sides consisting of the two garden fences. A diary of the spider's move- 

 ments would be rather monotonous. Nearly all the time she would seem 

 to sit quietly in the centre of the web. One morning she was absent for 

 an hour or two, and I supposed she had fallen a victim to some of her 

 enemies, either the 'thick or thin billed birds that gladly eat them,' or a 

 solitary toad which has lately appeared about the place. But the next time 

 I visited the web she was in the centre again. 



"The rain seemed to be her greatest enemy. After a violent shower which 

 took place a few mornings ago, about three or four o'clock, I found that 



the bit of zigzag lace had entirely disappeared. In the course of 

 ^P^^'^^S ^j-^g morning she began to repair it, and when I found her at 

 2^0. the work she rapidly ran off to the extreme end of the breast; 



work. However, before tw'o o'clock, she had entirely replaced her 

 bit of lace, though it w^as less straight and symmetrical than before. Since 

 then she seems hardly to have moved from her position. I had supposed 

 that the violence of the rain had swept the bit of lace away, but I 

 now think that the rain acts chemically upon it and dissolves it. This 

 morning it rained gently for a couple of hours before five o'clock. Directly 



after that hour I went to see the spider, and found that half of 

 -p . the lace strip above the centre of the web, and also above the 



spider, had disappeared entirely at the top, and nearly disap- 

 peared close to the spider's abdomen, wdiich is always uppermost. Below, 

 the parallels and zigzag were but little impaired. She also seemed uncom- 

 fortable from the wet and was scraping her legs and body, somewhat as a 

 fly does, until at least one drop of water fell. There are no wasps about 

 the place, and if the sparrows had been inclined to eat the spider they 

 would have done it before now. She hangs too high for the toad, fights 

 between whom and spiders I think are oftener read of than seen. 



" Monday morning, September 11th, 1876. — The spider has replaced the 

 zigzag strip for the sixth time, four times after rains, and twice on morn- 

 ings when no rain had fallen over night. In the latter cases little cottonlike 

 tufts were left, which seemed to form her bed (shield). Possibly, the strip, 

 on these two occasions, had been destroyed by the dew, though it W'as by 

 no means heavy. Each renewal of the strip is more imperfect tlian its i)red- 

 ecessor. Tliis morning it is very slight indeed, of inferior arcliitccture, 

 and not three inches long. Slie always forms it very rapidly, not by 

 drawing out single threads, as in iiuiking the web, but by i)roducing little 



bands, one-sixteenth of an iii<-h wide. The difference between tlie 



j-iT 01-- 1 J threads and the bands is similar to tliat between the 'ro])ing' 

 the Shield . . 



and the yarn turned out by the old fashioned hand cotton spin- 

 ning wheel in use fifty odd years ago. Tlie ' ro})ing,' it will be remembered, 



