118 THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE 



radiating lines. Accordingly the epeira glues a 

 thread to the center and, ascending by the trans- 

 verse thread already stretched, fixes the end of the 

 line to the circumference. That done, it returns to 

 the center by the line that it has just stretched ; there 

 it glues a second thread and immediately regains 

 the circumference, where it fastens the end of the 

 second line a short distance from the first one. Go- 

 ing thus alternately from the center to the circum- 

 ference and from the circumference to the center 

 by way of the last thread just stretched, the spider 

 fills the circular space with radiating lines so regu- 

 larly spaced that you would say they were traced 

 with rule and compass by an expert hand. 



"When the radiating lines are finished, the most 

 delicate work of all is still left for the spider. Each 

 of these lines must be bound by a thread that, start- 

 ing at the circumference, twists and turns in a 

 spiral line around the center, where it terminates. 

 The epeira starts from the top of the web and, un- 

 winding its thread, stretches it from one radiating 

 line to another, keeping always at an equal dis- 

 tance from the outside thread. By thus circling 

 about, always at the same distance from the preced- 

 ing thread, the spider ends at the center of the radi- 

 ating lines. The network is then finished. 



"Now there must be arranged a little ambuscade 

 from which the epeira can survey its web, a resting- 

 room where it finds shelter from the coolness of the 

 night and the heat of the day. In a little bunch of 

 leaves close together the spider builds itself a silk 

 den, a sort of funnel of close texture. That is its 



