96 THE BROOK BOOK 



HOW THE WEB IS USED 



Down at the very edge of Fall Brook, where 

 the shelving rocks are covered with thick moss 

 and lichens, I found hundreds of orb-webs. It 

 was evident from the perfect condition of the 

 snares at four o'clock in the afternoon that little 

 had been caught since these webs were spun. 

 Noting this, I was moved with compassion, and 

 cast about for some insect suitable for the spider's 

 needs and easy to catch. At first nothing was to 

 be seen. Then the rugged wall told me a se- 

 cret. Hanging there by its toe-nails was a brown, 

 mosquito-like crane-fly, in plain sight now that my 

 eyes had learned to distinguish it from the stone 

 to which it clung. There were others, in fact the 

 place was fairly alive with them, and they hung 

 motionless. Flying at random would have been 

 dangerous among so many spider-webs, so they 

 wisely kept quiet, scarcely trying to escape when 

 I essayed to capture one. 



The first fly which caught its long leg in a 

 sticky thread of the web I had selected to study 

 was quite near the center. The spider arrived 

 from the hub in an incredibly short space of time. 

 Without delay she began to enwrap her prey 

 with fine strands of freshly spun silk. First at- 

 taching a thread to the fly, the spider began turn- 

 ing the body of her victim over and over, using 

 the legs as we would use our arms in winding a 

 line on a reel. More thread was constantly being 

 supplied from the spinnerets until the fly was 



