74 ANIMALS AND INSECTS 



and she often puts bits of plaster upon it so it will 

 not be blown up and down by the currents of air. 

 We put stones upon pieces of cloth which we have 

 put out to bleach upon the grass, to keep them from 

 being blown away, but would you think that a little 

 spider would know enough to put pieces of mortar 

 on her silken carpet to keep it from blowing about? 



There are many different kinds of .spiders and all 

 of them make different sorts of carpets. You know 

 how on some summer morning you look out and 

 see the grass all covered with dainty, silken tents. 

 \Anien the dew dries away we no longer see the 

 tents, for the silk is so fine that they are almost in- 

 visible unless wet by dew or fog. A hard rain ruins 

 them and so do our feet as we walk across the grass. 

 But the next night all those little spiders are at 

 work again and by the following morning the grass 

 is covered once more by the dainty, silken tents. 



One spider, which children call the golden spider, 

 spins an open-work carpet of silken ropes and 

 threads in the shape of a circle. It does not lie flat 

 but hangs perpendicularly in the air. This is some- 

 thing like little crocheted mats or doihes and not at 

 all like the house-spider's carpet. Should you think 

 a mere spider could spin anything so exact and so 

 wonderful as this web? How do you suppose, in 

 the dark night, she can make all the spokes of her 

 wheel so perfect and divide the spaces so evenly? - 



Could you draw a picture of this golden spider's 

 web? Try it and see if you can draw as evenly as 

 the spider can spin. And remember that she has 

 to hang her web across the tips of branches and 



