BALLOONING SPIDERS 1 1/ 



from its unsatisfactory anchorage, and creeping to 

 the nearest available position for a new flight. 

 Even as you are examining the web upon your 

 hand the spry midget has mounted to the top of 

 your finger, and is off on his new silken balloon 

 in a twinkling, sailing upward and out of sight 

 even while his fellow-aeronauts are falling right 

 and left. For this flying-machine, though a toy, 

 as it were, of the wind, is still under control of the 

 wise little sailor at the helm. 



Almost any one of these flying tufts intercepted 

 on our finger or upon a small stick will induce its 

 little aeronaut to make a new start, and a careful 

 examination with a pocket magnifier will disclose 

 his secret. No matter how slight the breeze, he 

 seems instantly to head against it, the abdomen 

 is then raised, and in a moment a tiny stream of 

 flossy glistening silk is seen issuing from the 

 spinnerets beneath. Not the ordinary single web 

 which we all know, but a broad band which rep- 

 resents the many hundreds of strands usually 

 combined in the single thread, but now permitted 

 to issue singly from the spinnerets. White speaks 

 of the spider " shooting out " the web, and such 

 is the apparent feat, but doubtless the breeze as- 

 sists in the operation. It is certainly taking good 

 care of this floating banner from the loom of this 

 little spinner upon our finger-tip. Longer and 

 longer it grows. A yard or more of its length is 



