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perforated with numerous holes, so that each thread 

 may consist of many thousand filaments. The flying 

 spiders, on the contrary, can dart out the thread in a 

 straight line for many inches, in any direction, and 

 then in some unknown manner they follow it. In 

 these cases, when the animal and his chariot are 

 wafted away together by the winds, there is no diffi- 

 culty. Our authors have thrown no additional light 

 on this difficult subject." 



The gossamer-web was formerly believed to be a 

 tissue of " scorched dew ;" thus Spenser, 



" The fine net which oft we woven see 

 Of scorched dew." 



Even Dr. Hooke said that the gossamer only " much 

 resembled a cobweb," and that " the great white clouds 

 that appear all the summer-time might be of the same 

 substance." 



While Swammerdam and De Geer ridiculed the 

 idea of the flight of spiders, Dr. Hulse seems to have 

 more particularly observed the property which cer- 

 tain spiders possess of propelling their threads into 

 the air. Dr. Martin Lister discovered that spiders 

 were wafted aloft on this airy vehicle ; and, in fine 

 weather, found, more than once, a spider which, from 

 its flight, he called " the bird:" he afterwards noticed 

 that the insect, by elevating the anus, darted a thread 

 from thence, and thus rose into the atmosphere. 

 From the highest point of the Cathedral of York, Dr. 

 Lister beheld the gossamer-webs floating far above 

 him. Mr. White of Selborne confirms this account : 

 a spider darted off from the page he was then perusing, 

 and, though the atmosphere was tranquil, its ascent 

 was rapid; and it has been considered that this pro- 

 perty is not peculiar to one species, but that several 

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