Spiders. 371 



still adhering by the other end to the top of the stick, floated 

 in the air, and was so light as to be carried about by the 

 slightest breath. On approaching a pencil to the loose end 

 of this line, it did not adhere from mere contact. 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 it with one of its feet, and 

 finding it sufficiently tense, crept along it, strengthening it 

 as it proceeded by another thread, and thus reached the 

 pencil." 



We have repeatedly witnessed this occurrence, both in 

 the fields and when spiders were placed for experiment, as 

 Kirby hag described; but we very much doubt that the 

 thread broken is ever intended as a bridge cable, or that it 

 would have been so used in that instance, had it not been 

 artificially fixed and accidentally found again by the spider. 

 According to our observations, a spider never abandons, for 

 an instant, the thread which she despatches in quest of an 

 attachment, but uniformly keeps trying it with her feet, in 

 order to ascertain its success. We are, therefore, persuaded 

 that when a thread is broken in the manner above described, 

 it is because it has been spun too weak, and spiders may 

 often be seen breaking such threads in the process of netting 

 their webs. (J. R.) 



The plan, besides, as explained by these distinguished 

 writers, would more frequently prove abortive than suc- 

 cessful, from the cut thread not being sufiiciently long. 

 They admit, indeed, that spiders' lines are often found " a 

 yard or two long, fastened to twigs of grass not a foot in 



height Here, therefore, some other process must 



have been used."* 



2. Our celebrated English naturalist, Dr. Lister, whose 

 treatise upon our native spiders has been the basis of every 

 subsequent work on the subject, maintains that " some 

 spiders shoot out their threads in the same manner that 

 porcupines do their quills ;f that whereas the quills of the 



* Kirby and Spence, vol. i. Intr. p. 416. 



f Porcupines do not shoot out their quills, as was once generally btlieved. 



