342 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



basis of every subsequent work on the subject, main- 

 tains, that " some spiders shoot out their threads in 

 the same manner that porcupines do their quills; 

 that whereas the quills of the latter are entirely se- 

 parated from their bodies, when thus shot out, the 

 threads of the former remain fixed to their anus, as 

 the sun's rays to its body."* A French periodical 

 writer goes a little farther, and says, that spiders 

 have the power of shooting out threads, and directing 

 them at pleasure, towards a determined point, 

 judging of the distance and position of the object 

 by some sense of which we are ignorant.! Kirby 

 also says, that he once observed a small garden 

 spider {^ranea reticulata), " standing midway on a 

 long perpendicular fixed thread, and an appearance 

 caught" his " eye, of what seemed to be the emission 

 of threads." ^' I," therefore, he adds, " moved my 

 arm in the direction in which they apparently pro- 

 ceeded, and, as I had suspected, a floating thread 

 attached itself to my coat, along which the spider 

 crept. As this was connected with the spinners of 

 the spider, it could not have been formed" by 

 breaking a '^ secondary thread. "J Again, in speaking 

 of the gossamer-spider, he says, it " first extends its 

 thigh, shank, and foot, into a right line, and then, 

 elevating its abdomen till it becomes vertical, shoots 

 its thread into the air, and flies off from its station."^ 

 Another distinguished naturalist, Mr White of 

 Selborne, in speaking of the gossamer-spider, says, 

 " every day in fine weather in autumn do I see 

 these spiders shooting out their webs and mounting 

 alofl: they will go off from the finger, if you will 

 take them into your hand. Last summer, one 

 alighted on my book as I was reading in the par- 



* Lister, Hist. Animalia Angliae, 4to. p. 7. 



+ Phil. Mag. ii. p. 275. 



:j: Vol. i. Intr. p. 417. § Ibid. ii. p. 339. 



