412 FOOD OF INSECTS. 



stretched, and two or three radii spun from its centre, 

 than she continues her labour so quickly and unremit- 

 tingly that the eye can scarcely follow her progress. 

 The radii to the number of about twenty, giving the 

 net the appearance of a wheel, are speedily finished. 

 Slie then proceeds to the centre, quickly turns herself 

 round, and pulls each thread with her feet to ascertain 

 its strength, breaking any one that seems defective and 

 replacing it by another. Next, she glues immediately 

 round the centre five or six small concentric circles, 

 distant about half a line from each other, and then four 

 or five larger ones, each separated by a space of half 

 an inch or more. These last serve as a sort of tempo- 

 rary scaffolding to walk over, and to keep the radii 

 properly stretched while she glues to them the concen- 

 tric circles that are to remain, which she now proceeds 

 to construct. Placing herself at the circumference, and 

 fastening her thread to the end of one of the radii, she 

 walks up that one, towards the centre, to such a di- 

 stance as to draw the thread from her body of a suf- 

 ficient length to reach to the next. Then stepping 

 across and conducting the thread with one of her hind 

 feet, she glues it with her spinners to the point in the 

 adjoining radius to which it is to be fixed. This pro? 

 cess she repeats until she has filled up nearly the whole 

 space from the circumference to the centre with con- 

 centric circles distant from each other about two lines. 

 She always, however, leaves a vacant interval around 

 the smallest first spun circles that are nearest to the 

 centre, but for what end I am unable to conjecture. 

 Lastly, she runs to the centre and bites away the small 

 cotton-like tuft that united all the radii, which being 



