THE GARDEN SPIDER 237 



eggs in one cocoon. Leaves and other natural objects 

 are often interwoven, to give it an unsuspicious appear- 

 ance. 



The garden spider often finds herself in a difficulty 

 when seeking to run the first marginal threads of her 

 net from point to point. The branches which she desires to 

 connect may be high above the ground, and too far apart 

 for her to make her way from one to the other by any 

 ordinary method. One of the authors of the Introduction 

 to Entomology relates the following observations, which 

 are here slightly condensed : " I placed a large field 

 spider (Epeira diadema) upon a stick about a foot long 

 set upright in a vessel containing water. After fastening 

 its thread (as all spiders do before they move) to the top 

 of the stick, it crept down the side until it felt the water 

 with its fore-feet, which seem to serve as antennae ; it 

 then immediately swung itself from the stick, and climbed 

 up by the thread to the top. This it repeated perhaps 

 a score of times. At length it let itself drop from the 

 top of the stick, not by a single thread but by two, one 

 finer than the other. When it had nearly reached the 

 surface of the water, it broke off the finer thread, which, 

 still adhering to the top of the stick, floated in the air, 

 and was carried about by the slightest breath. On bring- 

 ing a pencil to the loose end of this line it did not adhere. 

 I therefore twisted it once or twice round the pencil, 

 and then drew it tight. The spider, which had previously 

 climbed to the top of the stick, immediately pulled at the 

 thread with one of her feet, and finding it sufficiently 

 tense, crept along it, strengthening it as she proceeded 

 by another thread, and thus reached the pencil." Many 

 spiders which wander in search of prey are able to emit 

 threads by which they can support their bodies in the 

 air when a breeze, even a gentle breeze, is blowing. The 

 example just described shows that the snare-making 

 spiders also may possess the power of throwing out a line, 

 which, though it may not suffice to raise the spider in 



