MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 



421 



fine silken thread. This grows longer and longer and floats out into 

 the schoolroom. It floats to and fro and at last is caught on some 

 piece of furniture, perhaps a desk. The thread, which extends from 

 the top of the stick to the desk, is very slack, and now the little 

 weaver is seen to 

 tighten and fasten it. 

 This done, he quickly 

 runs across and makes 

 his escape. 



The story of the 

 first suspension bridge 

 is thus told, " an engi- 

 neering feat of which 

 the spider was the 

 earliest discoverer." 1 



How many of 

 the class think 

 that spiders are 

 insects ? What is 

 an insect? What is 

 a bug ? What is a 

 worm ? These are 

 questions relating 

 rather to the right 

 use of language 

 than to compara- 

 tive zoology, and 

 we may as well clear them up. Ask each child, after 

 putting these questions and letting him try to answer 

 them, to bring to school a worm, a bug, another kind of 

 insect, and a spider. It is convenient to have them 

 brought in dry, clean bottles for ready observation and 



1 Read Gibson's " The Spider's Span " in Sharp Eyes. (Mary C. Henry.) 



FIG. 170. AN ORB WEAVER 



