70 ANIMALS AND INSECTS 



bottom, she fastens a stout thread which in the center 

 has a thick, white point made of a Uttle, silk cushion. 

 This is to be the center of the wheel, and from the 

 center the spider starts to the outside ropes, fastens 

 her rope and returns. From this center she runs 

 here and there, sometimes in one direction and 

 sometimes in another; sometimes placing spokes on 

 one side, then going over and placing an equal 

 number opposite, as if she knew that her wheel 

 would drag apart if it were not properly balanced. 



While one is watching her it seems as if she were 

 working in the utmost disorder, but when she has 

 finished her wheel, each spoke is perfectly placed, 

 she has put in just as many as her kind always puts 

 in, and they are equi-distant. 



Now she begins to put in the rope that coils 

 around the spokes. Placing herself in the center, 

 on the silk cushion, which has grown larger and 

 larger while the spokes were being laid, she slowly 

 turns around and around, and, with a very fine 

 thread, she winds a spiral from spoke to spoke, 

 carrying the thread on her back feet and placing 

 the coils on the spiral very near together. She 

 works this way until she has a ^'resting floor" about 

 the size of the palm of your hand, then, spinning 

 thicker threads, she places them farther apart for 

 her spiral until she reaches the outside ropes. 



Is her web done? Oh, no! The larger part of the 

 spiral must be done all over again. She has only 

 put in the coarse threads to hold the spokes in place. 

 This time she begins where she left off and weaves 

 toward the center with a sticky rope. This she 



