56 The Structure and Habits of Spiders. 



of the spider as she runs about on it. At one 

 side of the web is a tube leading down among 

 the grass-stems. At the top the spider usually 

 stands, just out of sight, and waits for some- 

 thing to light on the web, when she runs out, 

 and snatches it, and carries it into the tube to 

 eat. If any thing too large walks through the 

 web, she turns around, and retreats out of the 

 lower end of the tube, and can seldom be found 

 afterward. In favorable places these webs re- 

 main through the whole season, and are en- 

 larged, as the spider grows, by additions on the 

 outer edges, and are supported by threads run- 

 ning up into the neighboring plants. Similar 

 webs are made by several house-spiders, and 

 are enlarged, if let alone, till they are a foot or 

 two feet wide, and remain till they collect 

 dirt enough to tear them down by its weight. 



Nearly all spiders that make cobwebs live 

 under them, back downward ; and many are so 

 formed, that they can hardly walk right side up. 

 The spiders of the genus LiuypJiia make a 

 flat or curved sheet of web, supported by 

 threads above and below ; the spider standing, 

 usually, underneath in some corner, out of 



