246 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. XlV. 



selves. About 9 a. m. these films, some an inch 

 broad and six long-, fell from a height, and continued 

 to do so the whole day, with a velocity which proved 

 their weight. When the most elevated parts of the 

 country were ascended, the gossamers were seen to 

 fall from higher regions ; and twinkling and glitter- 

 ing in the sun, they appeared like a starry shower, 

 fixing the attention even of the most incurious. 



These are now known to be the work of a spider, 

 for they have been either caught in their balloons, or 

 been seen to take flight. To produce such effects, 

 their numbers of course must be prodigious. Dr. 

 Strach says, " that twenty or thirty often are found 

 on a single stubble ;" and adds, " that he collected 

 two thousand in half an hour, and could easily have 

 got twice as many had he wished it." 



Dr. Lister has seen them in the air in vast num- 

 bers. The mode in which they mount is strikingly 

 singular. It is now generally admitted that several 

 kinds of spiders have a power of darting out a 

 thread in any direction, and to a comparatively great 

 distance. The mechanism, however, of this extra- 

 ordinary effort is not at all understood. I saw a 

 spider descend from a window-ledge, by means of a 

 thread, and gathering up its legs, elevating its ab- 

 domen, and lying on its back, it shot out another to 

 the bricks, as straight and direct as an arrow. The 

 distance, I am sure, could not have been much less 

 than eight inches. 



This appears to be the mode adopted by the bird- 

 spider. It shoots out a thread, which being lighter 

 than the air, mounts, and buoys up the insect itself, 

 as the tail of a kite does the body. Some of them, 

 it would appear, not only bestride their film, but roll 

 it up in a mass, and thus sail in a balloon. 



" Every day in fine autumnal weather," says 

 White, " do I see these spiders shooting out their 

 web and mounting aloft. They will go off from the 

 finger if you will take them into your hand ; last 



