NATURE'S CALENDAR 



22<j 



will crawl to the top of a bush or fence, to 

 some exposed point, place all their feet in 

 a bunch, with the head held down and 

 the hinder part of the body up, and then 

 exude from the spinning apparatus at the 

 tip of the abdomen a thread, or sometimes 

 a brush-like cluster of threads, which is 

 caught by the breeze and floats out as it 

 lengthens, until finally it has buoyancy 

 enough to carry the spider away aloft out 

 of sight, or drift him off across the country 

 until he strikes some foothold and stops. 

 Then he may simply rest and soon fiy on 

 again, or he may cut loose and let his 

 thread go on wherever the wind will carry 

 it. 



This is the explanation of the gossamer 

 threads that in autumn cling to our clothes 

 and faces and shimmer in the sunlight. 

 Mr. Emerton,theauthorof anexcellentlit- 

 tlebookonAmericanspiders.alsosaysthat 

 it is a common habit with some spiders, 

 especially in October, to draw out a thread 

 behind them as they walk along, and 

 that this accounts for the attached threads 

 commonly seen lacing together the pick- 

 ets of a fence, or covering a field of grass, 

 or clinging to the side of a barn. Another 

 common habit with spiders is to let them- 

 selves down by threads from the branches 

 of trees and so forth to the ground, and 

 these hanging cables are blown about to 

 add to the tenuous, silvery gossamer that 

 is one of the exquisite ornaments of this 

 most delightful of months. 



October 24 



October 25 



