170 The Life of the Spider 



open fields ? The answer is obvious. The 

 young Spiders, bom acrobats and rope-walkers, 

 climb to the top of a branch so as to find sufficient 

 space below them to unfurl their apparatus. 

 Here, each draws from her rope-factory a thread 

 which she abandons to the eddies of the air. 

 Gently raised by the currents that ascend from 

 the ground warmed by the sun, this thread 

 wafts upwards, floats, undulates, makes for 

 its point of contact. At last, it breaks and 

 vanishes in the distance, carrying the spinstress 

 hanging to it. 



The Epeira with the three white crosses, the 

 Spider who has supplied us with these first data 

 concerning the process of dissemination, is 

 endowed with a moderate maternal industry. 

 As a receptacle for the eggs, she weaves a mere 

 pill of silk. Her work is modest indeed beside 

 the Banded Epeira's balloons. I looked to 

 these to supply me with fuller documents. I 

 had laid up a store by rearing some mothers 

 during the autumn. So that nothing of im- 

 portance might escape me, I divided my stock 

 of balloons, most of which were woven before 

 my eyes, into two sections. One half remained 



