BALLOONING SPIDERS 117 
from its unsatisfactory anchorage, and creeping to 
the nearest available position for a new flight. 
Even as you are examining the web upon your 
hand the spry midget has mounted to the top of 
your finger, and is off on his new silken balloon 
in a twinkling, sailing upward and out of sight 
even while his fellow-aeronauts are falling right 
and left. For this flying-machine, though a toy, 
as it were, of the wind, is still under control of the 
wise little sailor at the helm. 
Almost any one of these flying tufts intercepted 
on our finger or upon a small stick will induce its 
little aeronaut to make a new start, and a careful 
examination with a pocket magnifier will disclose 
his secret. No matter how slight the breeze, he 
seems instantly to head against it, the abdomen 
is then raised, and in a moment a tiny stream of 
flossy glistening silk is seen issuing from the 
spinnerets beneath. Not the ordinary single web 
which we all know, but a broad band which rep- 
resents the many hundreds of strands usually 
combined in the single thread, but now permitted 
to issue singly from the spinnerets. White speaks 
of the spider " shooting out " the web, and such 
is the apparent feat, but doubtless the breeze as- 
sists in the operation. It is certainly taking good 
care of this floating banner from the loom of this 
little spinner upon our finger-tip. Longer and 
longer it grows. A yard or more of its length is 
