THE AERONAUTIC OR BALLOONING HABIT. 263 



forward for about fifty feet, and then rose suddenly upward, as though 

 it had passed into an ascending current of air. 



No. 3. Lycosa; observed at 2 P. M. Pose and actions as No. 1. After 

 flight I distinctly saw one thread before and (apparently) two behind ; 

 the head was toward the wind. After sailing fifteen feet it rose up and 

 out of sight, a long stretch of meadow before it. Once, before it mounted, 

 it lifted up one hind foot, as though laying hold upon the stay thread. 



No. 4. Lycosa ; this example was followed for a distance of forty or 

 fifty feet; in front of it there appeared to be but one thread, a ray of 

 several fine diverging threads floated behind from the spinnerets. Its 

 back was toward the ground. Its abdomen seemed, but could not be 

 certainly determined, to be riding in front, i. e., toward the direction of 

 the wind. The body of the spider was thus at the apex of the angle 

 formed by the fore and hind filaments, the free points of which were 

 quite far apart. The balloon struck a tree, and part of it went on, the 

 spider apparently staying on the tree. 



No. 5. Lycosa; this specimen floated with the abdomen toward the 

 point of departure. Several threads ascended from it, one thread in front; 

 the feet were gathered together ; but, apparently, the back was upward. 

 It crossed the highway, and a carriage just then passing interfered with 

 the observation. 



No. 6. The head rode in front, the back was certainly toward the ground. 

 A fourfold streamer of threads was thrown out before mounting. At first 

 the spider moved off slowly, but soon climbed up the fore thread, the 

 " bow," so to speak ; further on it climbed up the rays of threads a dis- 

 tance of several inches. The balloon, when lost sight of, had at least three 

 separate filaments. It was followed one hundred feet before it rose out 

 of sight. 



No. 7. Lycosa ; riding back downward ; it sailed sidewise part of the 

 time; afterward the head seemed to be directed toward the course of the 

 wind. 



Before vaulting into the air many of the spiderlings turned their ele- 

 vated abdomens first to one point then to another; repeating the action 

 many times, as though testing the direction of the wind. The 

 e g oc ~ whole process of aeronautic flight, as it has been described, may 

 marized ^ e briefly given as follows : First, the spider seeks a high posi- 

 tion, such as the top of a bush, grass stalk, or fence post, as the 

 point of ascent. Second, the abdomen is elevated to as nearly a right angle 

 with the cephalothorax as may be. Third, a ray of threads is issued from 

 the spinnerets, the face being meanwhile turned to various points ; the 

 legs are stretched upward, thus raising the body; fourth, they gradually 

 incline in the direction of the breeze, the joints straighten out, the legs 

 sink forward and down until the first pair are almost on a level with the 

 surface, the whole attitude of the animal being that of one resisting some 



