THE AERONAUTIC OR BALLOONING HABIT. 267 



were held off, curved, the feet apparently united to the main thread by 

 taut filaments. This position, as far as could be determined, was main- 

 tained after flight. In some ciises a series of two or three puffs or pellets 

 of floss were gathered around tlie thread between its free end and .tlie 

 spiderling. They were generally cone shaped, the apex being turned toward 

 the animal. In form they were not unlike the pellets which one used to 

 see gathering upon the roll of wool as it passed from the fingers of our 

 maternal ancestors into the whirling "flyers" of an old fashioned spin- 

 ning wheel. (Fig. 277.) Perhaps they may have been wrought 

 ossy i^y ^^ similar process, the twisting of the loose threads through 

 the action of the wind and the counteraction of the spider. The 

 continuation of such twisting must presently break the thread, and thus 

 set the occupant afloat. The greater force of the wind secured by gently 

 breaking a stalk and lifting it into the air soon snapped off a thread, car- 

 rying the little aranead away with it. 



I am inclined to think that this mode of ballooning prevails, particu- 

 larly among Orbweavers ; that is to say, the spider, having spun out a long 

 thread, sometimes thickened at the attached end, lays hold upon it and 

 waits for the wind to pull it loose, when it is borne away and aloft. It 

 is even probable that the spider may cut the thread, and thus procure 

 her own release. This would place the moment of ascent within her own 

 volition, and the fact (should it be established) would add greatly to the 

 interest with which one must regard this variation in the aeronautic habit 

 of these interesting araneads. 



Dr. Gideon Lincecum has put upon record a case in point. ^ He de- 

 scribes the balloon of a Texas Urbweaver, which he calls the " Gossamer 

 Spider," as follows : A lock of white gossamer five or six inches long and 

 two inches wide in the middle, tapering toward the ends, is attached to 

 a stalk, bush, or other elevated object Ijy a thread two or three 

 exas jj^gj^gg long. At the free end or "bow," two lines thirty or forty 

 Balloon ^^^^ long are spun out, and one twenty or thirty feet long is 

 spun from the attached end or stern of the aerial craft. All 

 being ready for ascent, the voyager cuts the cable which holds the balloon, 

 and floats briskly upward and forward on an inclined plane, or bounds aloft 

 with a sliarp spring that eludes one's efforts to stop it. Lincecum's descri])- 

 tion of the hammock shaped balloon and its float lines answers very well to 

 the above described aeronautic spinningwork of Orbweavers (Fig. 277), and 

 I am disposed to accept as quite trustworthy the statement that the attached 

 end was actually severed by the spider, who thus controlled, in some 

 measure, the period of her ascent. 



Blackwall had already observed that occasionally spiders may be found 

 on gossamer webs after an ascending current of rarefied air has separated 



'American Naturalist, 1874, page 595. 



