18 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



wise form a base line than by dropping itself down 

 from the branch ; but, unfortunately for the theory, a 

 hig-h wind, accompanied by rain, set in within a few 

 hours after we had observed the web, which must have 

 been rent by the first blast. In the case of a long- 

 bodied spider {Tetragnatha ecT^e/j.sff), whose proceed- 

 ings we watched every day for more than a month in 

 a garden at Lee, the base line of the web was uni- 

 formly placed between two posts, about five feet high, 

 so long as the wind was either north or south, the 

 direction in which they stood ; and of course the line 

 was always of the same length, whether the wind was 

 light or boisterous. From the line lying across the 

 garden path, it was broken every day and renewed at 

 night. When the wind changed to east or west, how- 

 ever, there being no elevated object quite near to 

 which to attach the base line, it was floated in a slop- 

 ing direction till it fixed on some of the plants in the 

 flower borders, and in that case was often more than 

 thrice its former length, whether it was calm or not. 

 The only probable reason of these base lines being 

 short in windy weather is, that the floating line is 

 carried more rapidly to an adjacent object, and when 

 that object is distant, the spider by repeated trials 

 finds that it cannot stand against the storm, and, as 

 in all other cases of insufficient strength, it is broken 

 by her and abandoned. We have ne\er observed 

 anything, in a long acquaintance with spiders, to 

 indicate that they have any other knowledge of the 

 weather than this*. 



One circumstance in the economy of spiders, con- 

 nected with this subject, we may mention as curious. 

 It is well known that the whole tribe are, essentially, 

 night insects, though we might imagine they would 

 be more successful in their captures during the day, 

 when more insects are abroad and on the alert. It 



* J.R. 



