es 4 Pi . 
272 * - Obfervations on there spi. 
which were added to his life after this epoch 1776 Satta 
in 1784) his occupations and deranged {tate of health pre~ 
vented him from completing this labour, as he wrote no« 
thing more than what I have here made known. 
[To be concluded in the next Number. ] 
» 
——=== 
VIII. Ob/ervations on the Garden Spider, and the Method it 
employs to conftruét its Web. By an anonymous Author. 
From the Journal de Phyfique, Vendemiaire, An. VI, 
TH OU GH the natural hiftory of infeéts be not the par- 
ticular object of my ftudies, I never negle& any facts, re- 
Jating to that feience, with which accident may make me 
acquainted. In the month of Germinal laft I had before 
my windows fome fhrubs in pots; and one day, when it 
was very warm, I removed them from the fun, and placed 
them on the floor of my chamber. Cafttng my eyes on 
them about an hour after, T was not a little furprifed to fee 
a pretty, fmall, vertical fpider’s web, which extended from 
one fhrub to another. It was not above two inches in dia- 
meter; but the concentric circles and radii were exceedingly 
numerous. Nothing could be more elegant; and the cen- 
tre of it was quietly occupied by a fmall fpider, not larger 
_ than the head of a pin. I was certain that this web had not 
exifted an hour before, as J had removed my pots one after 
the other; and I could not conceive how fo much work, 
that muft have required fo many journeys, could have been 
completed fo foon; but what increafed my aftonifhment 
not a little was, that each pot was placed in a fmall vellel 
_ filled with water. Suppofing then that the fpider had gone 
from the one fhrub to the other to fix its threads, it mutt 
have been obliged to crofs the water, which appeared 19 to me 
improbable, as the animal was not of the aquatic kind. 
I then recollected a fimilar fact, which I pe oblerved the 
“year 
= 
— eS ee SS 
