128 Mr. W. W. Saunders oti a Spider's Weh. 



The way the cable was attached to the pebble demands attention, as 

 therein is shown great stability and ingenuity. About half an inch 

 above the pebble the cable forked, and each branch of the fork, a 

 little lower down, again and again forked, so that the attachment 

 to the pebble was in eight places, thus affording great strength 

 and firmness. There was about a foot of cable from the lower an- 

 gle of the frame-work of the web to the pebble, and thus there 

 was formed a sufficient length of pendulum to ensure a moderately 

 long beat or oscillation. When I first observed the web it was 

 in perfect order, and apparently newl)'' constructed ; and I made 

 diligent search after the constructor, but without success. I let the 

 web remain, with the hopes of discovering the spider ; but during the 

 afternoon and night of the 30th some showers of rain accompanied 

 with wind occurred, which much broke the web, so that the next 

 morning I took the pebble from it, and pulled down what remained, 

 to see whether the spider, which 1 thought must be at hand, al- 

 though I could not find it, would construct such another. By the 

 morning of the 1st of April another web was constructed, similar in 

 every respect to the former, excepting that no pebble was used as a 

 balance, the lower point of support being attached to an angle of a 

 large piece of gravel firmly imbedded in the ground ; and in this 

 state the web remained for some days, after which I took no further 

 notice of it. The spider always escaped me, but I have little doubt 

 that the webs were constructed by Epeira diadema, as that species 

 of spider is very common in our garden. Some may argue that the 

 second web was not constructed by the same spider that made the 

 first, as I have no direct evidence of the fact ; but the circumstantial 

 evidence of its being immediately constructed in the same place, and 

 of the same shape, and the known propensity of spiders to occupy the 

 same spot over and over again with their webs, sufficiently establish 

 the fact in my mind. Now, although one might be led to suppose 

 that the pebble was intentionally used as a balance by the spider, — and 

 I should be anxious to give it all due praise for its ingenuity, — yet 

 on considering the circumstance of the second web being constructed, 

 as they usually are, without a pendulum, I cannot but sujjpose the 

 first to have resulted from chance, and not from any foresight in the 

 spider ; for the use of a pendulum in the case under consideration, 

 did not overcome any difficulties that I can perceive, and the spider 

 was not prompted to make such another, showing that the second, 

 although constructed in the same place exactly, was found to answer 

 as well as the first. In this view I am glad to be borne out by so 

 high an authority as Mr. Spence, who considers that the balancing 

 of the webs of the Italian spiders was also the result of chance, as 



