MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 337 



of the highest steeple of York minster, from whence he 

 could discern the floating webs still very high above 

 him. Some spiders that fell and were entangled upon 

 the pinnacles he took. They were of a kind that 

 never enter houses, and therefore could not be sup- 

 posed to have taken their flight from the steeplei*. It 

 appears from his observations, that tliis faculty is not 

 confined to one species of spider, but is common to 

 several, though only in their young or half-grown 

 state "' ; whence we may infer, that when full-grown 

 their bodies are too heavy to be thus conveyed. One 

 spider he noticed that at one time contented itself with 

 ejaculating a single thread, while at others it darted 

 out several, like so many shining rays at the tail of a 

 comet. Of these, in Cambridgeshire in October, he 

 once saw an incredible number sailing in the air''. 

 Speaking of his A), subfuscus minutissimis oculis, &c. 

 he says, " Certainly this is an excellent rope-dancer, 

 and is wonderfully delighted with darting its threads : 

 nor is it only carried in the air, like the preceding ones ; 

 but it effects itself its ascent and sailing : for, by means 

 of its legs closely applied to each other, it as it were 

 balances itself, and promotes and directs its course 

 no otherwise than as if nature had furnished it with 

 wings or oars*^." A later, but equally gifted observer 

 of nature, Mr. White, confirms Dr. Lister's account. 



■ Ray's Letters, 37. 87. Lister Be Aran. 80. Lister illustrates the 

 for^e with which these creatures shoot their thread, by a homely though 

 very foirible simile: " Resupinata (says he) aniim in ventum dedit, 

 filura^queejaculata est qno plane mode robustissimusjuvenisedistentissiina 

 vesica urinam." _ . 



"Dev^ranm, 8. 2T. 61. 73— .79— . Mbid.79— . " Ibid. 85. 

 VOL. II. Z 



