240 NATURAL HISTORY. [cH. X1V» 



before they move) at the top of the stick, it nrept 

 down the side until it felt the water with its fore- 

 feet, which seem to serve as antennae ; it then im- 

 mediately swuiRg- itself from the stick (which was 

 slightly bent), and climbed up by the thread to the 

 top. This it repeated perhaps a score of times, 

 sometimes creeping- down a different part of the 

 stick, but more frequently down the very side it had 

 so often traversed in vain. At length, it let itself 

 drop from the top of the stick, not by a single thread, 

 but b}- two, each distant from the other about the 

 twelfth of an inch, guided as usual by one of its 

 hind-feet; one of the threads being apparently 

 smaller than the other. When it had suffered itself 

 to descend nearly to the surface of the water, it 

 stopped short, and, by some means which I could 

 not distinctly see, broke off, close to the spinners, 

 the smallest thread, which, still adhering by the end 

 to the top of the stick, floated in the air, and was so 

 light as to be carried about by the slightest breath." 

 Shortly afterward he found one of these threads 

 extending from the top of the stick to a cabinet, 

 seven or eight inches distant ; the prisoner had then 

 made its escape, using this thread doubtless as a 

 bridge. 



The spiders which form nets of concentric circles^ 

 differ from the house-spider Mith respect to the 

 situation in w^hich they remain, while watching for 

 their prey. Instead of lying concealed under the net, 

 they place themselves in its centre, with their head 

 downwards, and retire to a little apartment formed 

 under some leaf, near one side of the net, only when 

 they happen to be alarmed by the approach of dan- 

 ger, or driven to seek for shelter by stress of wea- 

 ther. This apartment is also used as a slaughter- 

 house ; for the moment an ill-starred fly, or other 

 insect, comes in contact with the net, the spider 

 springs upon it with the rapidity of lightning ; and 

 if the captured insect be of small size only, the 



